The Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres (West Flanders) is on a quest to find the owner of an original letter from the First World War, the museum revealed on Monday.
Found by a British tourist at the Tyne Cot cemetery, the letter is believed to have been lost by a family visiting Westhoek. Britt-Marie Beard from Taddington (Derbyshire, England) discovered the communication on 11 July. Dated 9 May 1918, the letter was penned by Lieutenant C.E. Prebble to inform S. Webb's wife of her husband's disappearance since 24 April.
Unable to find the document's owner, the British tourist handed it over to the museum. The museum team's research revealed that Lieutenant C.E. Prebble was killed in action on 8 August 1918 at Halloy-lès-Pernois in France. Both Lieutenant Prebble and soldier Webb belonged to a regiment that fought in Westhoek.
"Documents such as these hold strong emotional significance for relatives. We believe this letter is missing from someone's collection. Moreover, both Britt-Marie and we at the museum want to learn more about soldier Webb. We wonder if there is a connection to this area," elucidated Annick Vandenbilcke, a research associate at the museum.
The owner of the letter is invited to contact the museum via the following email address: kenniscentrum@ieper.be.
