RESEARCH before writing a novel can be rather time-consuming but is also extremely important and beneficial. As an author currently working on my next book, I want to gain as much information about young serving seamen during World War II.

My latest novel is loosely based around my grandfather’s life and the miserable childhood that lead him to run away from home in 1941 and join the Merchant Navy. He was only 16- years-old. Trying to speak first-hand to veterans of that war is becoming somewhat difficult, as there are few of them left to ask or who wish to talk about that time.

Understanding their emotions upon joining and during their dangerous voyages was never going to be easy.

Associations, websites and archives can be very helpful, but wanting first-hand accounts I turned to eBay, looking for original diaries, journals or letters to aid my research.

A bundle of 73 World War II letters were listed, written by an American naval officer aged 23, to his sweetheart back home.

They were sold with the description ‘Personal accounts and details about life away at sea.’ I bought them, but after receiving them many months ago, I needed to continue to finish a writing course I was committed to.

In more recent weeks I have returned to these letters and read them in more detail. They are written by the officer, Bill, and his fiancé Gladys.

In every letter they talk about their love for each other - always longing to be reunited, the wedding they are planning, the hope of a family and their lives together ‘after this terrible war.’

Bill also gives numerous personal accounts of how his men were coping. One letter talks of days on board with no electricity. No heating, lighting, radio and no refrigeration. The meat was given away and all food served cold. He was concerned about the morale on board and the weakness physically and mentally of his men but believed they had become the ‘toughest crew in the flotilla.’ When the generator was finally fixed he says ‘We have lights and heat again. Today we will have three warm meals for the first time in exactly a month.’ The relief was felt by all.

He speaks about being on watch, marching for days from one port to another, training and combat. He also mentions other officers he meets, who are like-minded and wish this war would hurry and end so they can return home. One chap he spends time with tells him about his mother who was a spy in World War 1. They are intriguing.

The letters are beautifully written and the penmanship is something rarely seen today. Reading these letters prompted me to find out more about the lovebirds. To my surprise, through Google I found an article about Bill, in the ‘Los Angeles Daily News’ dated October 2009. Unfortunately, he had passed away aged 89 shortly before the article was written. However, I was elated to discover that he had married Gladys upon returning after the war and they had lived a happy life together. Bill then spent most of his career in the classroom teaching journalism, at El Camino College, near Torrence, California.

Gladys stated in this interview that: “Our years together were beautiful, as happy as any marriage could be.”

A wonderful statement to read when I had just been reading their hopes and wishes through the letters they wrote in their early twenties.

The article went on to say that while Bill was at war, the couple had written letters to each other amassing about 1,000 through the years and that they had recently spent several days reading them to each other.

Parting from items so sentimental and special to the couple did not make sense to me. I wondered if they had been tragically parted from them in some unfortunate way and wanted to try and get in touch with one of the family to see if they would like them returning. They deserve to go back to where they belong.

Their children were listed at the bottom of the article and I had a spot of luck recently when one of Bill’s grandchildren replied to me via Facebook.

She put me in touch with her Uncle Rick, Bill and Gladys’ son. Once we started chatting via email, he told me how touched he was that I had taken the time to locate the family.

Gladys also passed away three years ago, but he told me that she would be delighted to know that these lost letters were going to be making their way back to the family to fill in the gaps in those remaining with the family.

Apparently, a bundle of letters were always taken away with the couple on any trip for evening reading and the ones that I bought on eBay had been lost on a vacation many years before. Gladys was heartbroken at the time that they had been lost.

Through these lost letters written in 1943-1945, I have gained a unique insight into a terrible time.

I have a new acquaintance on the sunny coast of LA, who has told me about the couple and sent photographs and given me permission to use and keep the letters for as long as I need to, knowing that I will keep them safe and return them soon.

The family are delighted that these precious lost letters are to be reunited with them. Their son referred to them as ‘The Crown Jewels of their relationship.’

A small sense of duty has brought a family gratitude through kindness and me an extreme sense of respect and satisfaction.