Dossier 3 - Letters from Malcolm B. McKerrow to Amy McKerrow

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These letters from Malcolm McKerrow to his mother describe his experiences in the army during the Second World War. They are mainly concerned with daily life and work in the various camps and other places where he was stationed, and with his own prospects of transfer and promotion. All but one of the letters were written between June 1940 to April 1941, the period immediately after his call-up. Regular correspondence presumably continued after that date, but only one more letter survives, written in November 1943 (D3/26). Moreover, it is clear that the earlier sequence is incomplete, for there are references in the letters to others which do not survive, as well as two envelopes without accompanying letters (D3/22 and 27).

On being called up, Malcolm was appointed a private in No. 3 Company of the Non-Combatant Corps, a body recruited from conscientious objectors and those unfit for active service; it is unclear why Malcolm was assigned to this Corps. He was sent, in the first instance, to a camp at Hemsby in Norfolk, and in the months that followed moved to various places, including Glasgow, Swindon, Bristol, and Marlborough. In September or October 1940 he was transferred to the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps. Thirty-one months intervene between the last letter of the main group and the last of all, by which time the writer had been promoted to corporal and was stationed in Cairo. The letter is dated at ‘M.I.8, G.H.Q., M.E.F.’ The latter part of the address stands for ‘General Headquarters, Middle East Force(s)’, but the meaning of ‘M.I.8’ is unclear.

On 19 February 1941 Malcolm sustained a bad injury to his right hand, and as a result the letters D3/20–26 and the last part of D3/19 were written left-handed.