In February 1942, the British Garrison in Singapore surrendered to the Imperial Japanese Army in what Winston Churchill called “the greatest defeat of the British Army in history”.
Over 50,000 British and many thousands of Australian, Indian and other allied troops were taken into captivity in Singapore along with thousands of others captured in Hong Kong, Java and other territories in the Far East.
Over 2½ years later, in late 1944, most of the families back in Britain had heard virtually no news of how the men were getting on or of conditions in the camps. Most had received only a handful of postcards which revealed very little information.
This was referred to as “The Interminable Silence” – a period when anxious relatives and friends sought in vain for news of their loved-ones.
In November 1944 forty nine rescued POWs arrived home in Britain following a remarkable rescue from the South China Sea.
Mrs Hope Robinson, whose husband Major Paul Robinson was one of those imprisoned in Thailand, interviewed two of these men and set in train a remarkable sequence of events that led to 5,000 letters being delivered to her home in Ilkeston, Derbyshire over the next few months. The letters are a unique record of the hopes, fears and anger of those trying to carry on with life in wartime Britain – expressed in their own words.
In 2017, over 2,000 of these letters were donated to Erewash Museum in Ilkeston – a collection known as “The Hope Robinson POW Letters Collection”.
In 2020, the letters and the story behind them were displayed at Erewash Museum in the “Letters of Hope“ exhibition.
This website tells the story behind the letters and provides online access to the exhibition.