True love story in book of Accrington soldier's letters (From Chorley Citizen)

True love story in book of Accrington soldier's letters

10:54am Thursday 25th February 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

CONSCRIPTED into the forces at the outbreak of World War II, Jim Allen, a 23-year-old printer in Accrington, was anxious to ‘do his bit'.

But soon after joining the Irish Guards, the reality of army life sank in — as did the heartache of leaving his 20-year-old fiancee Isabella Bradley, otherwise known as Ella, behind.

Over the next 5½ years Jim penned more than 300 letters to the young hairdresser, who lived in Sandy Lane, became his wife in 1941 and bore his first daughter, Lesley, in 1944.

Ella kept every one of them in her brown suitcase and now, 65 years on, they have been compiled in a book, by Virginia, the couple’s second daughter, who was born after the war.

She said: “Dad gave me his blessing to do something with his letters and I did think about making them into a story, but I couldn’t have written a novel as good as this.

“They bring the war to life, although I think he did shelter mum from the terrible realities of the fighting and his writing is often romantic, amusing and very moving.

“They describe his day-to-day experiences, hopes and dreams, but more than anything his story epitomises the perseverance, endurance and quiet courage shown by so many who lived through those turbulent times.”

‘Jim’s Story, A Case of Love and War’ has so far only been printed, thanks to Nayler’s in Accrington, where Jim returned to work after his army discharge, but Virginia is now seeking a publisher.

She’s also been in touch with the Imperial War Museum about the collection and wants to give talks and go into schools.

Jim spent his first months at Caterham, where he was promoted to L/Cpl and assigned as an instructor and in June 1944 he left English shores to take part in the Normandy invasion.

It was the time of couple’s third anniversary and the birth of his firstborn, but Jim could not get leave.

In a letter home to Whalley Road, after sailing to France, Jim wrote: ”The fact that I could not see you and the baby almost broke me down altogether.

“Leaning on the rail of the ship, I almost cried to think that I have to give up so much. We left the English coast to the strains of Old Lang Syne and I knew that many months would pass before I would be back.”

Jim protects Ella from the fierce fighting in France against Hitler’s Pantzer divisions, but in one letter states: “We are moving about all the time, I’m not being able to get any letters from you and it ruddy well keeps raining. I have lost all my friends and i just feel like a vagabond.

“All I do to keep myself going is to think about what things will be like after the war.”

It’s November when the family learn Jim has received severe leg injuries after a mine exploded and he is taken from the war zone to a convent in Belgium, before returning to ‘Blighty’.

Part of his convalescence is at Calderstones in Whalley, before he is transferred to Liverpool — but he has to take the train to get there.

Jim was finally discharged in October 1945 and he, Ella and Lesley, moved into a new home in Cobham Street, Accrington, where they lived all their life, celebrating their golden wedding in 1991.

l Jim’s Story is available from Blackburn Visitor Centre and Accrington Town Hall and is priced at £7.99.