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Reference DX-888 at Wolverhampton Archives is a collection of colour photocopies of the letters of Private J. Duffy, circa 1916-1917. They were deposited in 2003. On closer inspection, it appears that only one of the letters came from Private J. Duffy, the others appear to be from a Private J. Collins. Tracking down both of these men has proved to be rather elusive (so much so that J. Collins will be covered in a separate post…).

DX-888/1 Page 1 of Private Duffy's letter

DX-888/1 Page 1 of Private Duffy’s letter

The letter from Private Duffy, who signs himself “Jack”, is addressed to his aunt, and comes from the following address:

N2147, Pte. J. Duffy

12 Hut. B. Coy

2/5 S. Staffs

Ballykinlar Camp

Ireland”

As we do not have the accompanying envelopes to the letters, we do not know the name or address of the aunt. However, we can presume that the aunt is a sister of Duffy’s mother, rather than his father, because he refers to an argument with his mother, saying “I suppose I must have to forgive my Mother for what she done but she got me in a rage “.

Ballykinlar or Ballykinler camp, in Northern Ireland, was used as a training camp during both the First and Second World Wars. In March this year, some First World War practice trenches were uncovered there as part of an archaeological excavation. In his letter, Duffy confirms that they “are bound for France when we have finished our special training”.

As “Jack” could be short for John or James, or even be a middle name, it is quite difficult to narrow this man down. The Number given at the beginning of his address, “N2147”, did not later become his regiment number in the South Staffordshire Regiment. In the Territorial Force numbers were apparently only unique to a battalion, so were usually duplicated. According to the medal cards at the National Archives, there were at least 4 J. Duffys in the South Staffordshire Regiment. The paperwork for this accession, however, stated that the letters were from Private J Duffy, of the 2/4th Leicesters, of 25 Herbert Street, Wolverhampton. This means that he must have transferred from the South Staffordshire to the Leicestershire Regiment at some point. This paperwork also helped to confirm why they had come into our possession, because of the link with Wolverhampton. However, he was not at this address in the 1901 census so this does not help us much further.

In 1917, men serving in the Territorial Force were given new regiment numbers. This page gives the allocation of TF numbers to each corps of infantry, and leads us to assume that this is the J. Duffy that we are looking for. Without any further detail, it has still proved almost impossible to identify his birth records from this, so if anybody has any other information, we would be delighted to hear it!

A transcription of the letter in full (spelling and grammer as per the original):

Dear Aunt

    I received your kind and welcome letter and I am glad to hear that you are going on well. Well Aunt I have had a bad Accident and I have been going to hospital for a week with my thumb and Neurlagia in my teeth but I am getting over it thank God, I am having leave soon but we have got to pay 1 road and it costs about 30 shillings and I cant get the money and it is the last as we are bound for France when we have finished our special training and we shall have leave in a months time and I don’t think I shall be able to come owing to the money it costs. Well Aunt I suppose I must have to forgive my Mother for what she done but she got me in a rage and I suppose they have been having a good time because tom has been over and they could not find time owing to the beer but if I come I shall stop it again. I hope the baby is getting better and Charlie Stevens and G. Fisher are in the Pink but we are having terrific weather over here with snow rail hail and wind why you dont know when you are safe. Well Aunt I hope you have got over your bad throat and am able to get about but it is bad with yourself I know but never mind God Good and when Joe comes over I should keep him away from the lot of them altogether, I hope you are getting on alright with the shop and a doing a trade but I forgot to tell you that we are getting no potatoes over here owing to the price and we sailed on that boat that went down and it was the last voyage she done so you can tell how lucky we are. We have heard that there has been another air raid in England but I hope they never come to Wolerhampton and destroy it or it will be all up. Well Aunt I think I have said all this time so Good Night and God Bless you from

Your loving  

Nephew

Jack

For Baby xxxxxxxx

                Xxxxxx

                Xxxxxxx

With many thanks to David Underdown of halfmuffled for your assistance with this post!