Letter to Mrs Broderick
Title
Letter to Mrs Broderick
Description
A letter sent to Mrs Broderick from a Flight Lieutenant of 106 Squadron. The letter concerns the whereabouts of Joan Broderick's husband, Kenneth, who is presumed deceased. The letter is a response to a previous letter and offers advice and guidance and also information for Joan about volunteering to join the forces.
Creator
Date
1943-04-07
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Double sided type written letter with hand written annotations
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EMartinCTBroderickJR430407-0001, EMartinCTBroderickJR430407-0002
Transcription
[inserted] Ans’d. 29.4.43. [/inserted]
[embossed crest]
No. 106 Squadron,
Royal Air Force,
Syerston, Notts.
7th April 1943.
[deleted] 4068/S10/72/1 [/deleted] [inserted] DO/CTM [/inserted]
[deleted] Dear Mrs. Broderick, [/deleted] [inserted] My Dear Mrs Broderick [/inserted]
Thank you very much for your letter of the second, I am glad to hear from you again.
In reply to your first question I am of the opinion that where official action is taken to presume the death of anybody on active service the wife of that man is presumed for all legal purposes to be a widow. However, in order to set your mind completely at rest I am writing Air Ministry requesting confirmation on this point, and will let you have their ruling in due course.
With regard to your second question, as you asked me so definitely for my opinion I am bound to tell you quite candidly that I do not think there is any chance whatever of your late husband being alive now, I feel the time has long since gone by when we could hope that he might still turn up.
I am terribly sorry to have to write this to you, although you tell me not to be afraid that I shall hurt you, I know how distressing such information must be to you. However, I also know that it would be extremely unkind to hold out now what I firmly believe could only be stupidly false hopes.
There is just the one chance in a million of the miraculous return. I believe this did happen on two occaisons only in the last war, and even so I think I am right in saying there were contributory causes in these cases which do not seem to be present in this case.
I am very glad to know that you are now fit and well and do certainly admire your courage in volunteering for service. I believe the first two or three weeks for girls
P.T.O.
[page break]
joining the service seem to be a bit grim, but afterwards when they have settled down and got used to service life they all seem to be happy and enthusiastic and look back on their early days in the light of a joke. Do please let me know how you get on.
Your very Sincerely
Charles T Martin.
Flight Lieutenant, Adjutant,
[underlined] No. 106 Squadron, Royal Air Force. [/underlined]
Mrs. J. R. Broderick,
15, Station Way,
[underlined] Cheam, SURREY. [/underlined]
[inserted] [underlined] Document a [/underlined] [/inserted]
[embossed crest]
No. 106 Squadron,
Royal Air Force,
Syerston, Notts.
7th April 1943.
[deleted] 4068/S10/72/1 [/deleted] [inserted] DO/CTM [/inserted]
[deleted] Dear Mrs. Broderick, [/deleted] [inserted] My Dear Mrs Broderick [/inserted]
Thank you very much for your letter of the second, I am glad to hear from you again.
In reply to your first question I am of the opinion that where official action is taken to presume the death of anybody on active service the wife of that man is presumed for all legal purposes to be a widow. However, in order to set your mind completely at rest I am writing Air Ministry requesting confirmation on this point, and will let you have their ruling in due course.
With regard to your second question, as you asked me so definitely for my opinion I am bound to tell you quite candidly that I do not think there is any chance whatever of your late husband being alive now, I feel the time has long since gone by when we could hope that he might still turn up.
I am terribly sorry to have to write this to you, although you tell me not to be afraid that I shall hurt you, I know how distressing such information must be to you. However, I also know that it would be extremely unkind to hold out now what I firmly believe could only be stupidly false hopes.
There is just the one chance in a million of the miraculous return. I believe this did happen on two occaisons only in the last war, and even so I think I am right in saying there were contributory causes in these cases which do not seem to be present in this case.
I am very glad to know that you are now fit and well and do certainly admire your courage in volunteering for service. I believe the first two or three weeks for girls
P.T.O.
[page break]
joining the service seem to be a bit grim, but afterwards when they have settled down and got used to service life they all seem to be happy and enthusiastic and look back on their early days in the light of a joke. Do please let me know how you get on.
Your very Sincerely
Charles T Martin.
Flight Lieutenant, Adjutant,
[underlined] No. 106 Squadron, Royal Air Force. [/underlined]
Mrs. J. R. Broderick,
15, Station Way,
[underlined] Cheam, SURREY. [/underlined]
[inserted] [underlined] Document a [/underlined] [/inserted]
Collection
Citation
Great Britain. Royal Air Force, “Letter to Mrs Broderick,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed September 10, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/44200.