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Missing You
by Meremail

Missing You

by Meremail

N 12 B 4.1K C 22 E Jun 8, 2008 F Jun 11, 2008

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After both my parents had passed on, I discovered some memorabilia that they had never mentioned.
My Dad was a Sergeant in the British army during WW2 and had served in Europe. He emigrated first to Australia in early 1955, and once settled (about 5 months) the rest of the family then followed, by boat.

I posted an earlier shot and story about this in January at flickr.com/photos/meremail/2183773039/

During the time that they were separated my Mother had written to him almost every day and I discovered all of the Aerogrammes that she wrote, tucked away in an army shoulder pouch from the war, where he had meticulously saved and treasured them.

It revealed an extraordinary description of life, and the hardship of life in post war in England in the mid 50s.

Here is a closeup of the khaki material that was common to the military, and one of the Aerogrammes.

KHAKI from Wikipedia
Khaki is a type of fabric or the colour of such fabric. The name comes from the Persian word khâk (dust/ashes) which came to English from India, specifically via the British Indian Army. Khaki means earth-coloured or dust coloured, referring to the colour of uniforms introduced by the army regiments in the 1880s. More accurately, the correct shade of "Khaki" is the colour of "Multani Mitti", meaning "the mud of Multan". Multan was a well known military cantonment of British India (now in Pakistan).

For those not familiar with them, Aerogrammes were a common form of letter communication 30-50 years ago, and consisted of a very thin prepaid single sheet letter, that you could write all over wherever you could find space, but effectively gave you 3 pages.

From Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram :
An Aerogram or Air Letter, also called an aérogramme, is a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same and was largely popularised by its use during the Second World War (1939-45), after Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Evans, Royal Engineers, Assistant Director Army Postal Service Middle East Force (MEF), proposed that a lightweight self-sealing letter card that weighed only 1/10 oz be adopted by the British Army for air mail purposes.

For 7 Days of Shooting, Cloth and Fabrics Theme

Tags: Week #47 - Cloth and Fabrics 7 Days of Shooting Worn out & Weathered Wednesday Wednesday WW2 Khaki Letters Emigration Blue Flickr Golf Club Aerogramme Explore 11Jun 2008