| Collection | Bernard Weatherill Papers |
| Description | Family letters between Jack Weatherill (nickname of Bruce Bernard Weatherill), his family and close friends, November 1937 - June 1949. The majority of the letters in these bundles are for the war years, when Jack and his two sisters were away from home. Jack spent his months of training based in Oxfordshire and then entered the Indian army, travelling out there in the spring of 1942. His letters do not unfortunately cover the period of his service when he was posted to Bengal in 1944 at the time of the famine. His twin sister, Jill was a medical student in London studying to be a doctor and his younger sister, Bar although at school at the beginning of the war joined the Wrens and was in a unit of motor cycle messangers, based at Porchester in Hampshire. The content of the letters give a fleeting glimpse of the war and its effects on one family, both of those who were in the services and also Weatherill's father left to run the family business. None of the letters is detailed but it is clear that the war brought great changes for all of them. Some of Jack's letters are numbered and show every sign of having been read and re-read, but they are all in good condition. Several items, particularly notes from friends in the services appear to be chance survivals. Only the letters from Jack (Bernard Weatherill) are a complete series. |