The Mystery

---

When I was in my twenties, I discovered a collection of letters written to my grandmother, Darley Lochner, by her Scottish pen pal, Joan Wright. Joan's letters survived and I had them professionally preserved and framed. Now I'm searching for the other half of their friendship, my grandmother's letters. If they still exist, they're likely somewhere in Scotland. I'm sharing everything I know in the hope that someone recognizes Joan, her family, or the clues she left behind.

Dear Darley,

I will start off by telling you about myself. I am 13 years old, have brown hair and blue eyes. I am rather fat (they call me "Blubby" at school). I think your name is so unusual and I was very pleased to hear from you and would like to know how you got my name.

It is very exciting to get letters from abroad from girl friends so I hope you will write me again soon.

I have 7 sisters and 3 brothers and have a chum whose name is Matilda. She is a great sport and though she has brown hair and blue eyes like me she is not nearly so fat.

My father is a farm manager. We live in a farming district and the principal products grown are corn, turnips, potatoes and there are small quantities of sugar beet and wheat grown, especially farther south.

Many thanks for the lovely flowers you sent me and I would be very pleased if you would send me some more.

What a fine warm sunny climate you must have.

Wednesday is the first of June and yet it is so cold here that we have not been able to put on our summer frocks yet. In fact it has rained for the last two days.

I do envy you your camping holidays. I wish I could come with you. It sounds such fun.

I expect you attend a large school. Ours is a small one, there being only 23 pupils.

Do you get drill at school?

Do you have school concerts?

What is your favourite subject at school?

Mine is English.

I collect stamps too and would be glad to trade with you though I am afraid I shall never have as many as you.

Publishing a newspaper must be a very interesting job. I should love to know how it is done as I am a great reader. I like adventure stories best but read everything I can get.

I wonder if you could send me a copy of your father's newspaper? I should be so pleased.

You ask about our King and Queen.

Well, we think a lot of them in this country and Scottish people will travel miles just to get a glimpse of them.

We are very proud of the fact that the Queen and the Duchess of Gloucester are Scottish ladies.

Princess Elizabeth is very like Queen Mary and our late King George V was very fond of her.

The Royal Family come to Aberdeenshire every year during the shooting season. They stay at Balmoral Castle. You will see Balmoral marked on the map not far from Aberdeen.

They take the train up from England to Aberdeen, then motor from there to Balmoral.

Thousands of people line the roadways to catch a glimpse of them as they pass.

The Duke of Windsor was much better liked than the present King, especially amongst us working people. He took such an interest and mixed amongst everybody so freely.

It would have gone hard on Mrs. Simpson if she had not gone away when she did, for I am sure everybody could have killed her.

I will have to stop now, but I will tell you more about them next time and I hope to hear from you soon.

So cheerio just now.

Your loving pen-pal,

Joan

Dear Darley,

I do need not start off with a great haul of excuses again. It's this blinkin' war, I think. I'll blame it anyway.

Oh, you think Scotland's exciting, do you? I bet you wouldn't think so if you were nearly starved. You have no idea how thin I'm getting. Ha! Ha! He! He!

We're well off here in the country compared with the towns. It really is exciting with planes thundering overhead at night and us out of bed trying to see if it's a Jerry. We easily know by the sound of them.

There was one [redacted] and we got a real [redacted] for sixpence. I have not had the chance of seeing [redacted]. Our dear old [redacted] worrying is simply terrible this war. You would just need to be here. Some poor buddies are simply blown to pieces, never seen again.

I'm terrified for my soldier brother. I'm joining up too. What do you think of that? I feel I'm not doing enough with doing ordinary work.

We girls have to take the places of our men. Some of the work will be quite tough but we can take it.

I'm going into the W.A.A.F. I'll do more good there, I think. It will take more than Hitler to daunt our spirits. It's a terrible business, this coupon for our clothes. Fancy giving two coupons for one pair of stockings.

My ones will be all spent on stockings, I think. A lot of the girls here are wearing slacks to save their stockings. We will have to start and go like Adam and Eve. (Cotton we get in a year.)

There'll be some queer fashions before long. There's hardly any boys of our own left here now. There's thousands of soldiers [redacted]. They are all from other parts.

We get a lot of fun with the [redacted]. We have [redacted] in our district just now. A lot of the schools here are giving the money for the prizes to the Government to help the war.

I hope that Dutch girl writes, but if I take as long to write her as I do you, well...

You might tell that Latin teacher of yours that I'm awfully glad there's somebody tackling you girls.

I'll bet she's a sport.

Your loving friend,

Joan