The War Letters of Trevor Greenwood

Richard Trevor Greenwood (1908-1982, always known as Trevor) and Jessie Whitaker were married in Stockport, Cheshire on 17th December 1938. Trevor, my father, was an electrical sales engineer and Jessie (always known as Jess), my mother, was a clerk at the Public Trustee Office. From the 1st day of his army training to the very last day of his army service, my father (hereafter referred to as RTG) kept up an almost daily correspondence with my mother. The letters document his progress at Gateshead, moving between Rose St. and Prior St. schools, then to Bovington in Dorset, Farnley Park Camp near Leeds with a short interlude in Luton, then to Eastbourne, Melksham and Eastbourne again. Unfortunately only 2 letters survive between March 1942 and November 1943. Although my mother painstakingly preserved all the correspondence in cardboard boxes, it seems likely that one box was lost during a house move. RTG's story resumes in Charing, Kent followed by Shakers Wood near Thetford, Charing again, Brighton, and then 'Army Post Office' from 13th April 1944 until the Battalion became involved in active service in Normandy, D-Day +16 in RTG's case. The period from D-Day to 17th April 1945 was documented by RTG in his war diaries, transcribed by my brother, Barry and produced under the title 'One Day at a Time' in 1994. The letters cover this period and carry on through RTG's time at Schuttorf, Bentheim, Lengerich, Paris (British Army War Exhibition), and back to Germany until his return to civilian life.

Following the interest shown by so many people in RTG's war diary, Barry and I feel that the wealth of material contained in the letters should also be made available to those who lived through these times with RTG, and to those with a wider interest in researching the war from the perspective of the ordinary soldier. In deference to our mother's wishes, we held back from making the letters widely available because of their intensely personal nature, but since her death in October 1999 we both agree, that far from being disrespectful to our parents, the personal material adds poignancy and human interest to RTG's story and will strike a chord with many other ex-soldiers who were sustained through the nightmare of the war by the constant love and support of their families back home. RTG wrote copiously and relentlessly, and was apparently known as 'the professor' for his studiousness! This constant dialogue with Jess was his way of coping with the more immediate and horrific reality of the war, and the letters stand as a lasting testament to their lifelong devotion to each other.

RTG was one of the first batch of conscript soldiers to arrive in Gateshead on 27th November 1940, the day that the 9th Battalion RTR was officially reborn. The transcripts begin with his first few letters from Gateshead, transcribed by Peter Beale. We then move to Aldershot in May 1944, with my transcriptions starting at D-Day -10. These will be added gradually to the web site and cross-referenced with the relevant entries from RTG's Diary from D-Day onwards. As the letters written during active service are likely to be of wider general interest, it is my intention to continue these transcriptions through to the end of the war and the disbandment of the 9th battalion RTR, before picking up the threads in Gateshead. It is interesting to note that long descriptions in the diary, particularly of battles, are sometimes reproduced verbatim in a letter some time later, in compliance with the strict rules of censorship. e.g. The battle for Le Havre - diary entry 12.9.44, letter 9.10.44. I have omitted only those sections relating to domestic issues and personnel of no interest to the general reader. Such omissions are indicated thus: (...). Any necessary editorial explanations will be bracketed and in italics. RTG frequently underlines for emphasis and these sections are in bold.

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