Experiences of an ordinary couple in the Second World War

The talk given by Sue and Pete Mowforth to the Glasgow Branch, reading from a selection of their parents’ war-time letters, resulted in a flurry of media interest from the national press and radio, including an appearance on the BBC’s The One Show in February 2017.

Olga and Cyril Mowforth married in June 1940 but were almost immediately separated for six long and agonising years. Cyril was conscripted into the 23rd Hussars and sent to fight under the horrendous conditions of tank warfare in North Africa and then later to northern Europe driving the Nazis to their final defeat. Meanwhile Olga remained in Sheffield juggling long hours on Air Raid Precaution duties, various voluntary roles, social obligations and housekeeping with as much good cheer as she could muster given the constraints of wartime deprivations.