Shropshire Star

Wartime love letters feature as part of Shrewsbury LGBT history event

The story of a secret gay relationship revealed in a collection of wartime love letters has featured as part of a national LGBT history event in Shrewsbury.

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Mark Hignett, of Oswestry Museum, delivered a talk on the revealing collection at the "Back in Time 2" event, staged in Shrewsbury as part of the national festival of LGBT history.

The letters had been bought for the museum but Mr Hignett did not realise the epic love story contained within until he studied them more closely.

The 62-year-old uncovered the relationship as he transcribed the letters, which he bought on eBay for £1,000 after hunting for war memorabilia from the county for the museum.

He said: "The value of these letters lies in the fact most love letters from homosexuals at the time were burned, because if they were found, they would have been used as evidence.

Gunner Gilbert Bradley and the letters

"The story really has a life of its own, it's a fantastic love story to rival the Titanic."

The letters are from Gordon Bowsher, writing to his lover Gilbert Bradley who was fighting as a soldier in the Second World War.

Homosexuality was illegal in Britain until 1967, and the couple talk about keeping their relationship secret as well as travelling to California together after the war.

There are more than 300 letters from Gordon, written between 1939 and 1944.

Mr Hignett said: "Gilbert's dad owned a shipping company and tea plantations in India, so we know he came from a wealthy family.

"Gordon's family owned land and they talked about all the things they were planning to do together.

"We think their mums knew they were gay, but there's reference to not ever letting Gilbert's dad find out.

"The letters are full of humour and they weren't suppressed in any way. They talked about keeping their relationship secret, but they openly talked about friends who were gay."

When Mark first bought the letters, he presumed they were between a man and a woman as they were only ever signed 'G'. It wasn't until their full names were revealed that Mark realised he had uncovered a particularly rare war artifact.

Mr Hignett didn't realise the letters told such an epic love story

He said: "When I was half way through transcribing the letters I realised they were from Gordon.

"Then this story just took on a life of its own.

"The couple didn't stay together and there's a big chunk of the letters missing, so we don't know why they split up. We do know that Gordon went to California on his own though where he set up a horse stables. Gilbert worked for Cadbury's and was a junior studio assistant for the BBC before the war.

"They were such characters involved in all sorts and they were full of humour.

"Gordon talks about taking afternoon tea at the Savoy, and how he'd stand up every time the porter asked someone with a Bentley to move their car so people would think he owned a nice vehicle."

According to Mr Hignett, Gilbert was allegedly 'picked up' by Conservative MP Sir Paul Latham at 'The Pink Sink' – a notorious bar underneath the Ritz.

Gilbert died in 2008 aged 92, and Gordon had died around 15 years previously.

The talk was one of a number of events staged at the three-day Back in Time festival.

The festival featured a host of talks and films staged throughout the town, and was linked to other events at cities across the country.

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