Large collection of letters from Pte Ronald Shepherd (King’s Own Scottish Borderers), 1942-1946
some 200 in total, written to his girlfriend then wife Eva McCarthy of 59 Scorton St, Anfield, Liverpool, addressed from South East Asia Command, India Command, then Hill End mental hospital, St Albans, about 20 written on air mail ‘letter card’ stationery, the rest on plain paper and nearly all retaining original envelopes, with various types of postage stamp, the collection including a letter written from an undisclosed overseas location in October 1942 apparently renewing contact after several years’ silence, a letter dated February 1944 written from convalescence in India (‘You will know by now darling that I was wounded in action, but I am alright now, but I have still got the bullet in the top of my left arm, and it pains me now an again when I move the arm about, I think I also told you Eva my sweet that another bullet hit my steel helmet and split the back of my head open (My cow-boy days where [sic] nearly over) but I got through alright’), and numerous letters written during extended convalescence at Hill End mental hospital, the writer despondent, evidently disturbed, and frequently apologising for his behaviour during her visits. Together with a small collection of related material, including letters to Eva from other family members, a certificate addressed to her on leaving the Royal Ordnance Factory, Kirkby (dates of service April 1941-August 1945), school reports possibly belonging to the couple’s daughters, numerous empty envelopes etc.(approximately 200)
The writer’s tone throughout is effusive and importunate to an extreme degree, with continuous declarations of love and elaborate pictorial sign-offs, though a letter to Eva from her father, enclosing a copy of a letter he had written on her behalf to a former employer (‘Kelly’s’), puts the correspondence in an altogether more disturbing light: ‘Writing on behalf of my daughter now Mrs R. Shepherd, she would like to know, if you require her to resume work again with you, or must she consider herself dismissed. The circumstances were rather unfortunate and hurried. The man she married was badly injured more than 12 months ago in Burma, and the hospital authorities judged her presence to be more valuable than medicine, the result was a hasty wedding. Her husband will be returning to hospital for at least 9 to 12 months on Thursday, from then, she will be free to resume work or not, according to your discretion’.