1954 - background

You will have noticed large gaps in the correspondence. My grandparents obviously did not keep all the letters. In 1954 my father met and married my mother. My mother would say that any letters detailing meetings etc would not have been kept as my grandmother did not approve of my mother. In the latter part of 1954 my father was in UK on leave so no need of letters home.

My mother, Marguerite Beatrice Aylett, worked in HSBC and would have met my father in London. She probably would have taught him as she did many of the managers. My aunt remembers my father as being one of the crowd but my mother said he definitely was not a boyfriend of hers. My mother travelled out to Hongkong in 1954 to meet up with her fiance. She stopped off in Penang on the way out and was obviously entertained by my father. (Reading of the social times in the letters, you wonder if any work was done!). My mother went on to Hongkong and decided that her fiance was not for her. She returned to UK via Penang. My Nan received a letter asking her to book the church for a wedding but this time for another fiance - my father, the author of these letters. They were married on 14th November 1954.