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Soldiers’ thanks from the front line

14/11/2007

MOVING letters penned by Dukinfield men serving on the front line in World War I are available to view at Ashton’s Central Library.

The letters were all sent to Elizabeth Hannah Kenyon, mayor of Dukinfield at the time and chair of the Dukinfield branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild.

The guild sent much-needed supplies of warm socks and shirts to men in the army and navy stationed as far away as Holland and the Mediterranean.

Archivist Larysa Bolton said: "The letters are all very polite and deferential to the mayoress and particularly interesting when it is considered that they were written in the circumstances of World War I.

"The gratitude expressed in the letters is very moving because it illustrates the comfort that new, clean clothes could provide to men living in unimaginable circumstances.

"The writers also express immense gratitude at being remembered by those at home which was another great comfort to them at a difficult time."

The book of letters is on loan from Christopher Kenyon of Dukinfield rope makers William Kenyon and Sons.

Anyone keen to find out if their ancestor was one of the servicemen who wrote to Mrs Kenyon can find out on the archive website www.tameside.gov.uk/localstudies/

kenyonletters. The documents can be viewed at Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre, Central Library, Old Street, Ashton.