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Christmas cards made from the shorts of Alvin Whiteley

While serving in East Africa as part of The Frontiersmen (25th Batt. Royal Fusiliers), in 1916, Alvin Whiteley sent home two pieces of khaki cloth each with a message written in ink, e.g. Love and Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year from Alvin to Father and Mother (and to Margaret). East Africa 1916. These were enclosed in Letter 18 from the collection of letters of Alvin, sent from Tanga 4 November 1916. In the letter he writes How do you like my Christmas card? I have made it from the cloth cut off from the bottom of my trousers when I made them into shorts. I enclose one for Margaret as well.

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CONTRIBUTOR

James Burnett Hewitt

DATE

LANGUAGE

eng

ITEMS

1

INSTITUTION

Europeana 1914-1918

PROGRESS

START DATE
TRANSCRIBERS
CHARACTERS
LOCATIONS
ENRICHMENTS

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METADATA

Creator

europeana19141918:agent/be9781d3364dbc1302de0de23a75ee38

Source

Artifact
UGC

Contributor

europeana19141918:agent/febba033d0165f8943e27f84ae565abe

Date

1916-12-25
1916-11-06

Type

Memorabilia

Language

eng
English

Country

Europe

DataProvider

Europeana 1914-1918

Provider

Europeana 1914-1918

DatasetName

2020601_Ag_ErsterWeltkrieg_EU

Begin

1916-11-06

End

1916-12-25

Language

mul

Agent

Alvin Whiteley | europeana19141918:agent/be9781d3364dbc1302de0de23a75ee38
James Burnett Hewitt | europeana19141918:agent/febba033d0165f8943e27f84ae565abe

Medium

Canvas

Created

2019-09-11T08:08:05.181Z
2020-02-25T08:01:15.065Z
2012-08-31 15:28:47 UTC

Record ID

/2020601/https___1914_1918_europeana_eu_contributions_4210_attachments_50167

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Envelope showing example from the letters of Alvin Whiteley

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The box of letters of Alvin Whiteley. The letters have been grouped together and transcribed by James Hewitt into 6 parts. Alvin wrote these letters to his mother and they would thus have been sanitized - containing nothing which may have shocked her. Alvin's sister collected these letters and they were found in a shoebox, in her house, following her death. In part one hotel bills, detailed letters and laundry bills show the life of a commercial traveller in wool around Germany (1910-1912). Part two includes Alvin's basic training and his trip to Africa as part of The Frontiersmen (25th Batt. Royal Fusiliers), 1916. Part three sees Alvin invalided out of active service (Plymouth), some of his recuperation and uncertainty over his position (Hounslow) (January-June 1917). In Part four Lilian Spencer and Alvin marry, details of life on the home front, and Alvin joins the Pay Corps (June-December 1917). Part five has more minutiae of the home front, and after their son, Philip Whiteley, is born, letters after are all about life with a new baby (Jan-Dec 1918). Part six includes arrangements for employment once Alvin has left the army, as well as letters from other friends or family (January 1919 – October 1920).

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Envelope showing example from the letters of Alvin Whiteley

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An envelope showing an example of the many letters of Alvin Whiteley.

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