A London Man Thanks An American Couple For Offering To Host His Family During World War Ii: “So That You Will Know How Truly Grateful I Am To You & To Mrs Cherry For The Great Kindness You Have Shown To Me At A Time When Everything Looked So Black”

(WORLD WAR II). ALS. 4pgs. July 2, 1940. Southgate, London. An autograph letter signed “Frank J Clarke”. Clarke wrote to a Mr. & Mrs. Burrell of Little Falls, New York, thanking them for offering to let Clarke’s wife and baby live with them in the United States while Britain was being bombed during World War II: “Dear Mr. & Mrs. Burrell I cannot thank you enough for your very kind cable urging me to send Mrs Clarks & the baby over to you, it is something I shall always remember for in recent times I have been terribly worried over the welfare of Fay & Mary-Jane for I am afraid that there is no safe place from air attack in our small island. A short while ago Mrs. Cherry very kindly wrote & said that Fay & the baby could go over to her & about a week prior to receiving your cable things looked so black that I wrote Mrs Cherry asking whether I could send them to her if arrangements could be made to leave the country. Mr Rodgers cabeled me on his arrival in N.Y. & that was as you know after it was obvious that France would surrender & I asked him to get in tough with Mrs Cherry as I had spoken to him re this before he left. I then heard from Mr Rodgers that Mrs Cherry would gladly take my wife & baby & this cable reached me on the same day as yours. I am telling you all this so that you will know how truly grateful I am to you & to Mrs Cherry for the great kindness you have shown to me at a time when everything looked so black. It is very hard for Fay to make up her mind to leave, there are so many home ties but I must say for the sake of our baby, I hope she will, in any case we are obtaining passports etc. in readiness. I do hope that if Fay decides to leave that she will have the opportunity of thanking you in person, for I know how much she would look forward to meeting you again also Miss Betty Burrell & Miss Grimm. I feel we shall have a very bad time here in the next few months & there are as you know daily air-raids we of course retaliate but this is no consolation when one considers the suffering of the injured & the killing of helpless women and children. There is every confidence that we shall ultimately win this battle but we do realize that we must expect some very bad times before victory is ours. Fay joins with me in sending you both our most sincere thanks & really I am quite unable to express to you the gratitude I feel. With very best wishes to you & yours, Very sincerely Frank J Clarke”. In very good condition and including the original mailing envelope.