racy wartime affair between surgeon and nurse
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7/27/2019 Racy Wartime Affair Between Surgeon and Nurse
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Fifty Shades Of WWII Grey: Racy wartime affair
between surgeon and nurse revealed asdaughter posts 300 steamy love letters online
Swansea-born doctor Brian Thomas met nurse Katie Walker in Austria
He was already married so returned to England to file for divorce
They began their courtship by writing 300 love letters to each other
Some very racy, and include references to spanking and new knickers
They finally married after the war and settled in Hereford
Their daughter Loraine Fergusson, 61, found letters when Katie died
Has chronicled romantic wartime letters in blog
By Martha De Lacey and David Wilkes
PUBLISHED: 11:27 GMT, 15 May 2013 | UPDATED: 00:51 GMT, 16 May 2013
Full of tenderness and longing, the love letters between two wartime sweethearts are from a more innocent
age.
Then again, maybe not that innocent after all.
Among the 300 letters written between surgeon Brian Thomas and nurse Katie Walker as they waited to be
reunited at the end of the Second World War, are some very saucy exchanges indeed.
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The look of love: Medic Brian Thomas and nurse Katie Walker met in Graz, Austria, and
fell instantly in love
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Sealed with a kiss: The 300 romantic letters were found by Loraine, the couple's
daughter, 60 years later at the bottom of a chest of drawers belonging to Katie
The strength of their passion is laid bare in a stash of faded letters found hidden in a chest of drawers.
Their constant endearments and promises of love are sprinkled with rather more risque declarations.
At one point Miss Walker writes that she is so glum and ill-tempered living without her love that he would have
to spank her if he was there, adding mischievously: ‘but what a heavenly spanking!’
Mr Thomas later tells the girl he nicknamed Boofuls that he was delighted to hear she was making herself a
new pair of knickers.
‘Boofuls, I loved a bit of your letter when you said you were building some special undies for when our future
comes,’ he wrote.
‘I’m sure they are lovely and I swear I’ll handle you as gently as if you were a piece of Dresden china when
you’ve got them on. And I promise we won’t have a ripping time.’
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Happy together: When Brian and Katie met it was love at first sight, and the pair spent
the rest of their lives together once Brian had divorced his first wife, Kit
Mr Thomas met Miss Walker in Graz, Austria around 1943, while he was posted abroad with the Royal Army
Medical Corps.
His marriage had collapsed when his wife had an affair but Miss Walker helped mend his broken heart. When
he was demobbed and returned to Britain eight months before the war ended, Miss Walker stayed on in Graz.
They began writing to each other every day, their missives often decorated with hand-drawn love hearts and
always sealed with a kiss.
One of the love letters to the young nurse he called by the pet name of Boofuls, says: 'My dearest adorable
lovely Katie.
'Oh darling, you really are the most incredible wonderful person in all this
wide world and you make me so terribly happy. I still can't (and never will)
get over the incredible miracle of you loving me'
'Oh darling, you really are the most incredible wonderful person in all this wide world and you make me so
terribly happy.
'I still can't (and never will) get over the incredible miracle of you loving me.
'All my life I dreamed of loving such a person as you - someone who would love me and say dear sweet things
to me and make me feel happy inside.
'Oh darling dearest Boofuls, I do just adore you. Isn't it amazing that a love like we've got can actually make
one happy though we're apart?
'That you should love me in spite of all the dreary snags I've got, just fills me with wonderment.'
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Unrequited love: When Brian, left, and Katie, right, met, he was already married to his
first wife Kit, who had cheated on him while he was away at war
Mr Thomas, who in keeping with the times wanted to divorce his adulterous wife without bringing shame and
embarrassment on her, went through the charade of checking into a hotel with an actress for the night so he
could be blamed for the separation.
He kept Miss Walker up to date with his meetings with solicitors in London while filling his letters with his
declarations of his love for her - and the occasional racy passage.
'Boofuls, I loved a bit of your letter when you said you were building some
special undies for when our future comes'
One says: 'Boofuls, I loved a bit of your letter when you said you were building some special undies for when
our future comes.
'I'm sure they are lovely and I swear I'll handle you as gently as if you were a piece of Dresden china when
you've got them on. And I promise we won't have a ripping time.'
One of Miss Walker's letters to Mr Thomas says: 'Darling one, it's just as well you aren't here as you would
probably have to spank me hard - but what a heavenly spanking!'
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Ooh, mother! Loraine Fergusson filing through her parents' courtship love letters, 300 of
which - and some rather racy - she unearthed from the bottom of her mother's chest of
drawers after her death
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My dearest darling: A love letter written from Katie in Graz to Brian in London on 11 April,
1946
Most of her letters reveal a young woman who was faithful to the man of her dreams, despite the attention of
other servicemen posted far from home.
One of her letters says: 'We had a party in the Sisters' Mess last night. It was a very good one, everyone
mixing in well and as there were about three men to every girl, we found ourselves somewhat of a social
success.
'I told you how much I loved you, how much I missed you, and how much I just longed with all my heart to see you again and snuggle up against you
until I feel that nothing can ever part us again'
'Oh my darling one, how much I missed you, you can never guess, it's always so much worse when I am at a
party and surrounded by people.
'Everyone became very merry at this party and it was a very late hour when it ended.
'I missed you so much, darling one, that I went for a walk by myself around the grounds, I went past our seat,
the one that we sat on the night after your dance.
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'I then went and leaned against the fir trees - the ones where we had our tasty photograph taken. I just stood
there and had a chat with you my darling one.
'I told you how much I loved you, how much I missed you, and how much I just longed with all my heart to see
you again and snuggle up against you until I feel that nothing can ever part us again.'
Passionate penmanship: Brian and Katie's letters are long, colourful, entertaining and
dotted with illustrations
Some 300 of the love letters were found by their daughter Loraine Fergusson in her mother’s drawer after she
died aged 88.
And now the letters have been made public on a website dedicated to her parents’ enduring love. Mrs
Fergusson, 61, an author, of Didcot, Oxfordshire, said: ‘It was exciting because I didn’t know what was inthem.
'I am transcribing one a day and learning a lot about the early stages of my parent’s love affair.
‘At times it can be a bit like reading Shades of Grey. The fact that my father was married and had to get a
divorce makes it so exciting.
‘They also give an extraordinary window into life at the end of the war as men and women put their lives back
together and strove to fulfil the dreams they had of a happy future.’
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Growing old together: Brian Thomas settled with his wife Katie Walker in Hereford, where
they brought up their children Loraine and Peter
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Love of her life: Brian worked as an orthopaedic surgeon at Hereford hospital until his
retirement in 1975, and he died seven years later at the age of 72, leaving Katie broken-
hearted
Mr Thomas had married his girlfriend Kit just two weeks before being posted abroad in 1942.But after a year patching up injured British soldiers in Algiers and the Middle East the then 34-year-old came
home to discover his wife had met someone else.
He returned heartbroken to his duties in Italy, then to Graz where he and Miss Walker, 23, fell in love.
In one of his letters he told her: ‘I still can’t (and never will) get over the incredible miracle of you loving me…
Isn’t it amazing that a love like we’ve got can actually make one happy though we’re apart?’
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A slice of history: Loraine was too upset to go through the letters immediately after her
mother's death, but now, three years on, she feels ready to share them with the world
Mr Thomas married Miss Walker in 1947 as soon as his divorce came through.
The couple settled in Hereford, where they had Loraine and a son, Peter. Mr Thomas worked as an
orthopaedic surgeon at the city’s hospital until his retirement in 1975. He died seven years later at the age of72.
But it was not until his wife’s death in 2009 that the letters, and dozens of fading black and white photographs,
were found.
Mrs Fergusson said: ‘My father died when I was 29 but there was never any doubt they were still madly in love
with each other.
‘As a child you take your parents’ relationship for granted but I never heard them argue and they were always
laughing.’
To my dearest darling Boofuls: A letter from Brian to Katie
My dearest adorable lovely Katie
A most wonderful long letter from you today. Oh darling, you really are the most incredible wonderful person
and all this wide world and you make me so terribly happy.
I still can't (and never will) get over the incredible miracle of you loving me. All my life I dreamed of loving such
a person as you - someone who would love me and say dear sweet things to me and make me feel happy
inside.
That you should love me in spite of all the dreary snags I've got, just fills me with wonderment. Oh darling
dearest Boofuls, I do just adore you.
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Isn't it amazing that a love like we’ve got can actually make one happy though we're apart? It does so very
definitely for me.
I miss you like hell all the time, but the very knowledge that there really is an usses makes me happy in a
wonderful deep sure manner. I'm sure no one else has ever had an usses but with us it's a tangible thing.
When I think of you my darling, I don’t somehow think of you as a separate being. I think of you as a part of my
conscious self and you and me and usses and it’s always so vivid.
It’s all the things we’ve ever said and done, all the sweet things you said to me, all our funny lownesses and our belching and the way we look and the smell of you and the way we dance and all I think of you.
All that and heaps more is only just a fraction of what our usses is to me, my darling one.
As you said in your letter, the time it takes us to get finally together is a waste, but it’s no longer frightening. Do
you remember how afraid we were once that anything could change? Now I know it won't.
I've never been so certain of anything in all my life as I am of my love for you darling, and you will never
escape me now. You just ruddy well try, and see how I react! I will deal with you like the young girl from
Bermuda, who thought she was shrewder. I was shrewder.
She thought it was rude to be viewed in the nude (pardon me). But I viewed her, pursued her, and... You will
never guess what I did to her when I caught her.
I want to snuggle my face in your neck: A letter from Katie to Brian
My dear, darlingest Brian
This will be a very short note tonight my sweet, my mind is a little more blank than usual but I was missing you
so much and I decided to have a weenie short natter to you before zizzing.
Did you know that I love you, my darling? Because I do and tonight I am filled with a very quiet tender love.
I would just give the world to curl up in your arms and snuggle my face into your neck - perhaps you would
stroke my hair and I know I should feel more contented than ever in my life before - you could always calm me
down in the most wonderful way when I was feeling irritable and grumpy.
You are such a tender darling, always so sweet and gentle with me, much more so than I thought any man
could ever be. If I close my eyes now I can feel you inside me.
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Daughter's tribute: Loraine's blog With Love From Graz chronicles the love between her
parents during World War Two
To read more of Brian and Katie's love letters and see more photographs, visit Loraine's blog, With
Love From Graz.
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Comments (126)
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Whether or not these should have been made public or not is debatable but I'm in awe of any love that can survive a war, especially
a war that will have touched every single one of our lives, even if we didn't live it, we love someone who did.
- ilovelondontown , London, United Kingdom, 16/5/2013 14:39
Click to rate Rating 1
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To Sasha - I wish the DM showed how many people red arrowed and how many green arrowed rather than the system they have
now, I think it would show a greater understanding of people's feelings, as at the moment one person can green then be cancelled
out by another persons, therefore leaving both votes nil. - Lysamps, North Yorkshire, 15/5/2013 20:27 One green arrow for that
suggestion.
- john , Macclesfield, United Kingdom, 16/5/2013 09:36
Click to rate Rating 23
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I was in a charity shop a couple of days ago and spotted a shelf bulging with copies of 'Fifty Shades of Grey', out of interest I
counted them, fourteen. Unsurprisingly the shop manageress told me that they weren't accepting any more copies because they
simply can't shift them.
- keith , Gwent, 16/5/2013 09:16
Click to rate Rating 27
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I love the educated sophistication and passion of that generation, full of romance! Future children might find a mobile with naughty
texts and photos if they're unlucky... How quickly things have changed!
- Putting it Politely , Horsham, UK, 16/5/2013 08:11
Click to rate Rating 30
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Women were treated so badly back then by men. Thank goodness for 2nd wave feminism, germaine Greer, Harriet Hartman and the
raft of feminist legislation. Now women are treated so much better by men.
- James01 , Manchester, United Kingdom, 16/5/2013 08:07
Click to rate Rating 37
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