Birmingham bombing letters to go under the auction

Sep 15 2008

A SECRET archive of letters written by a Midland mum to her RAF son during the Birmingham Blitz has been uncovered in a junk shop.

Maud Benton put pen to paper to give serviceman Eric a graphic insight into the day-to-day horrors of a city targeted by the German Luftwaffe.

The mum poignantly writes about the death and destruction caused by bombers who left 2,241 dead and 6,000 injured in raids between August 1940 and April 1943.

Maud, from Old Hill, Sandwell, and her son both survived the war but passed away some years later.

Now her incredible collection of 80 letters is going up for sale at auction after being found gathering dust in a Bournemouth junk shop. “This is one of the most remarkable World War Two archives I have seen,” said Richard Westwood-Brookes, historical documents expert at Shropshire-based Mullock’s Auctioneers.

“The letters provide so much information on the ordinary Birmingham civilian population and how they fared day by day through the darkest period of the war.”

In fact, the letters are so detailed that unsuspecting Maud could have faced arrest as a possible German spy if they had been uncovered at the time.

“Had the authorities known what she was doing she would almost certainly have faced criminal charges,” added Mr Westwood-Brookes.

“The information she was so innocently providing to her son would have been worth its weight in gold to the Germans, and poor old Mrs Benton may have been arrested as a German spy.”

Devastated

The letters describe how many of Birmingham’s famous landmarks were devastated by the bombing, including New Street Station and the Hippodrome Theatre – which was hit mid-performance.

In another touching letter, Maud informs her RAF serving son that his favourite toy shop Barnbys has been destroyed and in another she comforts him over the loss of a serviceman friend. As Birmingham suffered 13 nights in a row of bombings, she complains to Eric that she has only been in her bed one night each week and is almost ‘dead from tiredness’.

Yet despite the amazing archive discovery, little is known about Maud or her son. He is believed to have moved to the south coast after the war and one possible theory is that her letters ended up in the junk shop following a house clearance following his death.

The collection will go under the hammer at Ludlow Racecourse on September 25 and could fetch £500.