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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Abigail O'Leary

'Sweet' wartime love letters between RAF commander and young woman found in empty house

A bundle of forgotten wartime love letters has been found in an empty house prompting a search for relatives of the couple who wrote them.

The letters were exchanged between a young woman in Blackpool, Lancs., and an RAF commander stationed in Plymouth, Devon.

Dating from 1942 to 1946, they are full of romantic passages with the pair longing to see each other again.

Marie Copley’s surveyor husband found the letters - some handwritten and some typed - in a wardrobe at a vacant house in Reading, Berks which had recently been sold.

They were exchanged between a Miss Ronnie Stone who lived in Leyton Road, Blackpool, and Air Commander Frankie Clarke, who served in the RAF during World War Two.

One envelope even contained some pressed flowers sent as a gift.

Mrs Copley said: “They’re a really fascinating piece of history. From the dating of the letters it seems they can’t have been together too long.

“I’ve tried searching and I can’t find a marriage certificate and I don’t think they had children. They are so sweet.”

Mrs Copley added: “In one he says ‘All your movements that you’ve written about interest me and when you talk of the gardens my mind goes back to those happy days of Blackpool, which I’ll never forget’.

“And then he says, ‘That’s all for now my dear. Fondest love and wishes that we can be together again, Frankie’.”

Mrs Copley, who has a personal interest in World War Two, has since circulated details of the letters on local history groups in Blackpool in the hope of finding out more.

She said: “They’ve been shared hundreds of times now.

“I just think I need to try to get them back to their families. I feel like they don’t belong to me really. I’m sure their children or grandchildren would love to have them back.”

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