File 1944 - Letters of 1944

255 letters paper

Gerald Wade writes regarding Eileen Power and Manning's deaths. This letter was in response to the Annual Report and indicates the importance of the report in terms of keeping contact with former Jesuans. Wade last spoke to Pars 20 years earlier. Letters from Michael Webster who does not want to get called up for service and asks Pars and Tillyard for back-up (he was successful). Letter from Barry Till. Letters from Peter Thorpe (Pars sends money instead of a gift). Noel Redman writes to say that he has seen every aspect of the war and is in the thick of it (British Liberation Army). He gives details of battles and speaks of liberating villages in Normandy. Noel has heard from Bruce Brooks and Michael Webster has been invalided out of the army. Letters from David Furley in India. Letters from Charlie Moule at Ridley Hall and Clare. Letter from Oliver and Helen's mother Jessica Lawn and her husband. Several letters from Oliver and Helen. Many young men are thinking about what they want to do after the war. Letter from Alistair Cooke at the BBC. Notes from Duckworth. Letters from Bobby Gittings. Letters from Harold Spencer Jones who mentions the work of Flamsteed in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. Regular letters from Getty, Lawn, Jeeves and Taunt at Bletchley. Letters from Pat Hayes-throughout the war years ex-pupils ask Pars for references usually for military promotions. Letter from Anwar who is in the Liberation Army in France. Letter from Kenneth Clarke who writes from a chateau in France. In a letter to Godfrey Brown(not sent), Pars writes why he can't recommend the College. He uses the opportunity to express his thoughts on the College, the new group of Fellows and the general state of affairs in a very negative manner. Letters from friend Christopher Dodd. Letters from Ernest Booth. Booth's son Stephen is back from South Africa and Booth is looking into Pars' will. As the war draws to a close, Booth implies that Pars will be moving back into the house at Acton. Pars refers to his mother as a woman of "advanced age, crippled and infirm" and Pars's sister is unmarried and works in the Home Office. There is a huge housing shortage and houses are being requisitioned by the government. Pars worries about his mother, silver and other valuables in the house. Later letters follow from Booth about the burglary in Pars' house. Eight airgraphs from Philip Stevenson, Barry Pennington (former student of Pars who later goes to Princeton and then Aberystwyth where he died suddenly at a in the late 1960s), Higgins, Hugh Denham, John Bargman, Robbie Jennings, R.N. Jackson, and one that is unreadable. Other letters from these individuals as well. Many letters from Tony who hopes to continue his degree in classics. He mentions that Pars's house was burgled and that soldiers are shot for stealing from foreigner's homes. Despite the ongoing war, there are still countless letters of invitations or thank yous for lunches, dinners, plays and other social events. Letter from Michael le Gros in India who describes the Indians, calling the Sepoys "bone-idle". Long letter from R.N. Jackson in India who describes the victories against the Japanese and also wants to finish his degree in English. Letters from Jack Percival. Letters to E.G. Milne. Pars brought his mother who is 77 to Cambridge during the "Blitz" and she is renting Getty's house while he is at Bletchley. Pars is very depressed after Manning's death and has a few more choice things to say about the Senior Tutor and how the college is run by incompetent and mean third-rate academics. He feels he no longer has any influence on College policy. Gardner Smith seems to be his chief ally and a member of the "Dartmoor Quartet". G.C. Steward writes from Hull:Grundy from Clare has had a breakdown and Bronowski is at the Ministry of Home Security. J. Ragg writes to say that Ricketts is having a gruesome time in Burma and compliments Brittain on the memoir of Manning. Letters from Gordon Hutchinson in Nigeria who voices his dislike of Freddy Brittain. Letters from Graham Bickerton. Letter from John(?) Cuss and Edmund Spalding. Many write about "Q"-Couches death. Letters from Bill Darch who is leaving for India. Pars writes to John about leaving the College. He feels he is no longer useful and perhaps bitter that he never got a "war job". A letter to Duckworth from the Dean who wants to go back to his parish in Comberton Pars tries to convince him not to go, and scathing attacks are made on Freddy Brittain by Pars. These are very revealing letters and there are several letters back and forth.