The heartbreaking WW1 Christmas message rediscovered in 2016

Friends of the family of Andrew Miller have donated the delicately embroidered correspondence Credit: Durham County Council

A soldier’s heart-breaking First World War Christmas message has been donated to the Durham Light Infantry Collection - centuries after it was first sent to his family.

Miner Andrew Miller enlisted in the DLI in 1915 and for over two and a half years sent home postcards to his wife Ellen, and children James and Isabel, in Gateshead.

Now friends of the family have donated the delicately embroidered correspondence, with volunteers at Sevenhills in Spennymoor researching what happened to him - and why the cards suddenly stopped.

In a card dated Christmas Eve 1915, the grey eyed, dark brown haired soldier tells his daughter that he hopes Santa Claus “will bring you a nice big doll and cradle”

“I will bid you bonjour”

“I hope you will be a good little girl for your mummy until Daddy comes home.”

Unfortunately he never did.

In later life Ellen and Isabel moved to the south of England, where they were cared for by neighbour Barbara Angell and her daughter Josephine.

Josephine received the cards upon Isabel’s death, and she has now given them to the DLI Collection.

The post cards will be passed to Durham County Records Office in the coming months, where they will join the rest of the DLI Collection archives.