Eileen Alexander - Love in the Blitz

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2020

Letters copyright © 2020 Eileen Alexander

Compilation copyright © 2020 David McGowan

Cover design by Jack Smyth

Cover photographs: Couple kissing © Hulton Deutsch/Getty Images; St Paul’s © Popperfoto/Getty Images

David McGowan asserts the moral right to be identified as the editor of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008311209

Ebook Edition © April 2020 ISBN: 9780008311223

Version: 2020-03-24

1 Cover

2 Title Page

3 Copyright

4 Contents

5 Foreword by Oswyn Murray

6 Historical Introduction by David Crane

7 1 Drumnadrochit, summer 1939

8 September 1939–April 1940

9 2 ‘No time to sit on brood’

10 May–September 1940

11 3 My Young Fellow

12 September–December 1940

13 4 Blitz

14 January–March 1941

15 5 Intentions

16 March–September 1941

17 6 A Rill Civil Servant

18 September–December 1941

19 7 Your Intended

20 January–May 1942

21 8 Separation

22 May–December 1942

23 9 Limbo

24 January 1943–March 1944

25 10 The Long Wait

26 April 1944–March 1946

27 11 Twin Compasses

28 Postscript

29 Dramatis Personae

30 Picture Section

31 About the Author

32 About the Publisher

Landmarks CoverFrontmatterStart of ContentBackmatter

List of Pages iii iv vii viii ix x xi xii xiii xv xvi xvii xviii xix xx 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 55 56 57 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 101 102 103 104 105 106 107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141 143144 145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164 165166 167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197 199 201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227 229230 231232233234235236237238239240241242 243244 245246247248249250251252253254255256257258259260261262263264265266267268269270271272273274275276277278279280281282283284285286287288289290291292293294295296297298299300301302303304305306307308309310311312313 315316 317318319320321322323324325326327328329330331332333334335336337338339340341342343344345346347348349350351352353354355356357358359360361362363364365366367368369370371372373374375376377378379380381382383384385386387388389390391392393394395396397398399400401402403404405406407408409410411412413414415416417418419420421422423424425426427428429430431432433434435436437438439440441442443444445446 447 449450451452453454455456457458459460461462463464 465466 467468469470471

In the autumn of 2017 I received an email from an unknown correspondent:

Dear Mr Murray,

I hope you will forgive the intrusion, but I recently purchased a large quantity of wartime correspondence, via eBay, written by Eileen Alexander (soon to be Ellenbogen) in which I have found many references to your father, as Eileen worked with him in S9 at the Air Ministry during World War Two. I attach details of a weekend she spent with your family in Summer 1943. I have considered long and hard whether this is the right thing to do, and am basing my decision on the fact that if there were written details of my own family from over 70 years ago I would very much like to read them. Eileen held your father in the very highest regard and her letters are bejewelled with words like kind, intellectual, understanding, humanist regarding him. Although it is only just over 70 years ago – the idyllic weekend she describes seems to certainly belong to a lost era …

With very best wishes,

David McGowan

I replied enthusiastically:

I have often blessed my parents for giving me a name (my grandfather’s) that is unique on the world wide web, but never more so than on receiving your email at the age of 80. Yes I still remember Corners vividly, our home from before my birth in 1937 to 1945, the doodlebugs, the air raid shelter, the 1945 election (when we were the HQ of the local Liberals), the garden and its wood. Your extracts are however the only written record I know of that period, and they are lovely. I do remember vaguely the name of Eileen Alexander, who sent Christmas cards every year, and I can locate most of the places and people she mentions.

It seems my father was still in the Air Ministry in 1943; but in that year he moved to be civil service head of SOE under General Gubbins, an experience he claimed had been expunged from his memory by concussion at the end of the war; but my first suitcase was one designed to hold a radio transmitter to be parachuted into France … Subsequently Patrick went on to the Ministry of Power, where he headed the electricity division, being responsible for the nationalisation of electricity and its denationalisation twenty years later, and for the creation of a nuclear power industry. He retired in 1965, and went to live in the south of France and Weybridge.

Thus began an unexpected friendship during which David and I researched his find. For thirteen years he had been the sole carer of his aged mother and confined to the house much of the time; to occupy himself he decided to buy letters on eBay and perhaps make a book out of them. By pure chance he bought a small bundle of letters from Eileen Alexander, and realised that these were truly remarkable; so he contacted the seller and offered to purchase the rest. A year passed, and he had given up hope, when finally the seller offered him the remaining letters for the original auction price.

Eileen Alexander graduated in 1939 with a brilliant first-class degree in English from Girton College, Cambridge; her subsequent accident in a car driven by her future husband, Gershon Ellenbogen, begins the correspondence and their love affair. There were approximately fourteen hundred of these letters, written almost daily, covering the years 1939 to 1947. David began transcribing them; he sent me a first volume and then three further ones, over sixteen hundred pages covering roughly half of the correspondence. I began to quail at the thought of a book as long as Proust, and suggested that he try to edit it down to a single volume with the idea of publication. Within ten days that volume arrived, covering the years of courtship up to Eileen’s reunion with Gershon and marriage. We christened it Love in the Blitz , and I introduced him to a family friend, the literary agent Felicity Bryan. She read it while confined with flu on her sick bed, and the next day phoned David and offered to be his agent. Together the three of us began to research the history of the correspondence.