Queen of My Heart (a Soldier’s Verse Letter)

25 September 2020

Letter writing was the main form of communication between soldiers and their loved ones in World War One, boosting morale and filling up long hours spent in the trenches waiting for the next conflict to begin. It’s not surprising to learn, then, that the British Army Postal Service delivered around 2 billion letters and postcards during the war.

Below is an example of a Verse Letter, pre-printed with song titles popular at the time, for soldiers to send to their sweethearts.  There were many, many versions of these ready-made letters, each with different verses.

This particularly letter was on show in the ‘WW1 – Home and Away’ exhibition staged by Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers in 2014.

A Message From Camp

‘My Heart is With You, Tonight’  love,
as ‘In The Shadows’ your dear face I see,
And, ‘I Wonder if The Girl I’m Thinking Of’
will ‘Sometimes’ think of me.

‘How Can I Bear to Leave Thee’ dear
for ‘The Sunshine of Your Smile’
brings to me ‘A Little Bit of Heaven’
‘Sweet Maid of Britain’s Isle’.

‘I Wonder if You Miss Me Sometimes’
‘My Wonderful Rose of Love’
‘Absence makes my Heart Grow Fonder’
‘Because’ I’m ‘True as The Stars Above’.

‘Oh Dry Those Tears’ ‘My Dearest One’
for ‘On Leave’ I’ll be ‘Home Again’,
cheer up, ‘Mavourneen’ and do not worry
‘Though Parting’s Such Sweet Pain’.

‘Say Au Revoir, But Not Goodbye’
for your ‘Laddie in Khaki’ is true,
‘Keep The Home Fires Burning’ bright,
‘Until’ I come back to ‘You, Just You’.

Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteers

Read ‘Letters to Loved Ones‘ by the Imperial War Museum.

Email us if you have WW1 postcards or letters in your collection which you’d like to share here.