Letters between wartime sweethearts stored in a chocolates tin lay forgotten for decades in a Tyneside house.
When the house in Hebburn in South Tyneside changed hands, the new owner found the tin in a cupboard under the stairs.
Inside were 30 letters which had been exchanged between rifleman Phil Goff and Elza Hunter Widdop, between 1939 and 1946.
The couple had married in 1940 and Phil served in North Africa and Italy during the war, while Elza joined the Army Transport Service and drove lorries across the country.
Phil was shot in the stomach and spent hours strapped to the back of a Sherman tank before he reached hospital, where he eventually recovered.
Now, more than 70 years later, the letters have found their way back to the couple’s family.
Their daughter Kathleen Thacker travelled to Tyneside from her home in Cheshire to be presented with the letters today.
The finder of the letters gave them to a charity shop in Hebburn, who in turn passed them to a local resident with an interest in militaria, Norma Jewitt.
The next link in the chain was Andy Wilson and Peter Caffrey, who drive for a Tyneside charity, founded by Garreth Murrell, called Veterans at Ease, which provides therapy for veterans and serving personnel dealing with mental health issues, and which has shops in Whitley Bay and Gateshead.
Andy had got to know Norma from calling at her home to pick up her donations to the charity, and she gave the letters to him.
Peter then passed the letters on to his wife Marie Caffrey, who as well as being a volunteer for the charity, is a researcher for the Northumbria World War One Commemoration Project, based in North Shields.
“They are beautiful letters, covered in kisses and every third word in Phil’s letters is ‘darling,’” said Marie, who lives in Whitley Bay. She had Phil’s service number from the letters and carried out an online search, which led to the couple’s nephew in Scotland.
“He was amazed that the letters had survived,” said Marie, who was told that Phil had passed away in 1998 and that Elza had died at her husband’s funeral.
Marie was put in touch with the couple’s daughter Kathleen Thacker. “She knew nothing about the letters and was, understandably, thrilled and emotional,” said Marie. “She wanted to meet everyone who had been involved.”
Kathleen, who was presented with the letters at the charity’s shop in Jackson Street in Gateshead, said: ”When I was told about the letters, I couldn’t believe it, and it will be fascinating to read them. My parents were a devoted couple.”
