16/12/53 My dear Margot, Here is a line to wish you all a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Your mother is in normal form. The Le Messuriers are a long living family and though she is now 70 68 years of age her hair is just as it was when you last saw her. My own hair is quite white; that is just after I have washed it, but it is a […]
This post is a letter from Eda LeMessurier to Jean Lang (her granddaughter) describing the family history of some of their mutual ancestors, the Tourtels. In particular, Robert Tourtel (pictured), who was Eda LeMessurier’s uncle. The letters are transcribed below. TOURTEL Now we come to the country people, engaged mostly in agriculture, & later building greenhouses for tomatoes and grapes & cultivating daffodils; but even then rearing Guernsey cattle for American buyers. Many men working […]
This is an undated account of an escape under fire from Guernsey across the Channel to England after WWII started. The account was copied by Eda Stringer, and contains her additional notes. Possibly escape was August 1941. It is not clear whether this whole transcript is written by the same person, or whether it ‘morphs’ into a letter from Eda at the point where the group was taken to Scotland Yard. Note from Eda: From […]
Note from Eda Stringer at top of letter: Holme View, Aglionby, Carlisle 15.7.40 Failure to evacuate more completely must have been due, as he says, to the Guernsey authorities. It looks as if they had not asked for sufficient boats, so I don’t think the Cabinet can be blamed! Father had been told, you remember, that the Bailiff had gone jittery & that contradictory orders had been issued. No wonder the island was in a state […]
Monday Dear Margot Here is a link to the wikipedia article about the Guernsey evacuation. The latest news is that 2000 Germans (two thousand) landed in Guernsey alone. This comes from the Waymouths. Father was away during the whole of Sunday – 9 am to 7 pm – dealing with the children. Someone, he forgets who, had had news of the Waymouths. They have a very big bakery at L’Islet, in the Vale Parish, & […]
Note at top of letter: You know the two big posts at the gate, with the ramblers. Father pruned them severely this year, & they are perfectly gorgeous, huge clusters of blooms as big as your head – the clusters, not the blooms. Saturday. Dear Margot Here is a link to the wikipedia article about the Guernsey evacuation. Thank you for your letter. Either I missed out a comma! (Father’s pet) or else you missed […]
Eda Le Messurier is pictured in the middle of her extended family. At the back, her aunts Agnes and Lou standing. Seated, her grandfather Nicholas, Eda herself and her grandmother Mary Ann Thoume. At their feet is her uncle Harold. Agnes and Lou were very skilled needle workers, and taught Eda many skills. Nicholas LeMessurier with the silver tea service presented to him when he retired in 1898 from his position as […]
These pictures show Eda Le Messurier aged 4 and a half with her doll. She is wearing a black velvet dress with a red sash and collar and cuffs crocheted by her Aunt Agnes. She was very proud of it.