On the 26th November 1944 Hope Robinson published a letter in the Sunday Express newspaper stating “A Jap Prison Camp. Better News”. She told of how conditions were rather better than the Government was telling the public. The following day 85 letters arrived at her home asking for more information.
To accompany her letter, she produced a 2000 word pamphlet, titled “Life as a Prisoner of War in Thailand.”
Over the following weeks as many as 5,000 letters poured in asking for copies of her leaflet, asking about their own loved-ones or venting their anger at the War Office for not telling them more.
The “Hope Robinson POW Letters Collection” contains 2,219 of these letters which provide a unique insight into the hopes, fears and general mood of