Forbidden love The WW2 letters between two men -…

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Forbidden love: The WW2 letters

between two men
By Bethan Bell
BBC News

17 February 2017 England

"My own darling boy" - a greeting in one of the letters

While on military training during World War Two,

Gilbert Bradley was in love. He exchanged
hundreds of letters with his sweetheart - who
merely signed with the initial "G". But more than
70 years later, it was discovered that G stood for
Gordon, and Gilbert had been in love with a man.
At the time, not only was homosexuality illegal, but
those in the armed forces could be shot for having
gay sex.

The letters, which emerged after Mr Bradley's death

in 2008, are therefore unusual and shed an important
light on homosexual relationships during the war.

What do we know about this forbidden love affair?

Wednesday January 24th 1939

My darling,

... I lie awake all night waiting for the postman in the
early morning, and then when he does not bring
anything from you I just exist, a mass of nerves...

All my love forever,

G.

Information gleaned from the letters indicate Mr

Bradley was a reluctant soldier. He did not want to be
in the Army, and even pretended to have epilepsy to
avoid it.

His ruse did not work, though, and in 1939 he was

stationed at Park Hall Camp in Oswestry, Shropshire,
to train as an anti-aircraft gunner.

He was already in love with Gordon Bowsher. The

pair had met on a houseboat holiday in Devon in
1938 when Mr Bowsher was in a relationship with Mr
Bradley's nephew.

Mr Bowsher was from a well-to-do family. His father

ran a shipping company, and the Bowshers also
owned tea plantations.
When war broke out a year later he trained as an
infantryman and was stationed at locations across the
country.

February 12 1940, Park Grange

My own darling boy,

There is nothing more than I desire in life but to have

you with me constantly...

...I can see or I imagine I can see, what your mother

and father's reaction would be... the rest of the world
have no conception of what our love is - they do not
know that it is love...

But life as a homosexual in the 1940s was incredibly

difficult. Gay activity was a court-martial offence, jail
sentences for so-called "gross indecency" were
common, and much of society strongly disapproved
of same-sex relationships.

It was not until the Sexual Offences Act 1967 that

consenting men aged 21 and over were legally
allowed to have gay relationships - and being openly
gay in the armed services was not allowed until 2000.

The letters, which emerged after Mr Bradley's death

in 2008, are rare because most homosexual couples
would get rid of anything so incriminating, says gay
rights activist Peter Roscoe.

In one letter Mr Bowsher urges his lover to "do one

thing for me in deadly seriousness. I want all my
letters destroyed. Please darling do this for me. Til
then and forever I worship you."

Mr Roscoe says the letters are inspiring in their

positivity.
"There is a gay history and it isn't always negative
and tearful," he says. "So many stories are about
arrests - Oscar Wilde, Reading Gaol and all those
awful, awful stories.

"But despite all the awful circumstances, gay men

and lesbians managed to rise above it all and have
fascinating and good lives despite everything."

February 1st, 1941 K . C. Gloucester Regiment,

Priors Road, Cheltenham

My darling boy,

For years I had it drummed into me that no love could

last for life...

I want you darling seriously to delve into your own

mind, and to look for once in to the future.

Imagine the time when the war is over and we are

living together... would it not be better to live on from
now on the memory of our life together when it was at
its most golden pitch.

Your own G.

OSWESTRY TOWN MUSEUM

 OSWESTRY TOWN MUSEUM

But was this a love story with a happy ending?

Probably not. At one point, Mr Bradley was sent to

Scotland on a mission to defend the Forth Bridge. He
met and fell in love with two other men. Rather
surprisingly, he wrote and told Mr Bowsher all about
his romances north of the border. Perhaps even more
surprisingly, Mr Bowsher took it all in his stride,
writing that he "understood why they fell in love with
you. After all, so did I".

Although the couple wrote throughout the war, the

letters stopped in 1945.

However, both went on to enjoy interesting lives.

Mr Bowsher moved to California and became a well-
known horse trainer. In a strange twist, he employed
Sirhan Sirhan, who would go on to be convicted of
assassinating Robert Kennedy.

Mr Bradley was briefly entangled with the MP Sir Paul

Latham, who was imprisoned in 1941 following a
court martial for "improper conduct" with three
gunners and a civilian. Sir Paul was exposed after
some "indiscreet letters" were discovered.

Mr Bradley moved to Brighton and died in 2008. A

house clearance company found the letters and sold
them to a dealer specialising in military mail.

The letters were finally bought by Oswestry Town

Museum, when curator Mark Hignett was searching
on eBay for items connected with the town.

He bought just three at first, and says the content led

him to believe a fond girlfriend or fiancé was the
sender. There were queries about bed sheets, living
conditions - and their dreams for their future life
together.

OSWESTRY TOWN MUSEUM

Gilbert Bradley was stationed at Park Hall Camp in Oswestry

in 1939
When he spotted there were more for sale, he
snapped them up too - and on transcribing the letters
for a display in the museum, Mr Hignett and his
colleagues discovered the truth. The "girlfriend" was a
boyfriend.

The revelation piqued Mr Hignett's interest - he

describes his experience as being similar to reading a
book and finding the last page ripped out: "I just had
to keep buying the letters to find out what happened
next."

Although he's spent "thousands of pounds" on the

collection of more than 600 letters, he believes in
terms of historical worth the correspondence is
"invaluable".

"Such letters are extremely rare because they were

incriminating - gay men faced years in prison with or
without hard labour," he says. "There was even the
possibility that gay soldiers could have been shot."

Work on a book is already under way at the museum,

where the letters will also go on display.

Perhaps most poignantly, one of the letters contains

the lines:

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our letters could be

published in the future in a more enlightened time.
Then all the world could see how in love we are."

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