When it comes to communication, the internet offers instant gratification. By their very nature, handwritten letters are more permanent. Letters create a tangible connection to the people, places, and events of the past. Ironically, when the links of that chain break, it seems the easiest way to repair them is with the speedy tools of the world wide web.
Liverpool native Lance Corporal William Swift enlisted at the onset of WWI in 1914. He and his brothers in arms of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment were sent to France in 1916. After taking part in the Battle of the Somme, at age 19, Swift perished at the Battle of Arras.
But Swift inadvertently left something behind while stationed at Noeux-les Mines after the Battle of the Somme.
During building renovations more than a century later, a school teacher unearthed letters to Swift from his family; they were found beneath the floorboards of the soldier’s former billet.
The letters were taken into the care of Mathilde Bernardet, a historian with the Memorial 14-18 museum at Notre Dame De Lorette.
As reported by the BBC, Bernardet classified the deeply moving missives as “simple letters, sent by parents who care about their son. The letters are full of support. The mum says she misses her son—she hopes he is doing well, keeping well and that she trusts in him… It’s full of love really.”
Knowing the poignant ending to the Lance Corporal’s story, Bernardet and her colleagues became determined to find Swift’s living relations and return the correspondence to his family.
However, the hunt for Swift’s relatives proved more difficult than anticipated. Months of research turned up no leads.
With traditional means exhausted, the historian took the search to social media. The results from her Facebook plea for pertinent information were, if not instantaneous, pretty darn close.
“In less than four hours, the post had been shared a few thousand times and we had [found] a few connections to the family,” Bernardet told BBC.
Lance Corporal William Swift may not have made it home to Liverpool all those many years ago, but thanks to the efforts of a determined historian and some timely help from the internet, his letters will—and that long-broken chain connecting past, present, and future is now restored for generations to come.
