Bid to trace seaman's WW2 Cardiff schoolgirl pen pals

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Bid to trace seaman's WW2 Cardiff schoolgirl pen pals

A quest to find the Cardiff schoolgirls who wrote letters to a merchant navy seaman during World War Two is under way.
Harry Hearl, from Swindon, was in his 20s when he served on board RMS Aquatania.

During his service he received a number of letters from schoolchildren after he donated tennis equipment to their school.

But little is known about Mr Hearl and his connection to Cardiff, so his family is trying to find the people who wrote to him in a bid to discover more about him.

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The British Ship Adoption Society was formed in 1936 and, in 1946, there were some 1200 ships and over 800 schools participating in the movement. Every member school was expected to pay an annual fee of £3.3s. Fees paid by local education authorities qualified for a 50% grant from the Ministry of Education and shipping companies contributed according to the number of ships and tonnage owned.
but watch his jets to see they don't go out.

With the decline in British shipping, the Seafarers' Education Service and the Marine Society amalgamated and, in 1976, absorbed what was left of the work of the BSAS. In 1988, the term Ship Adoption was changed to that of Sea Lines as today's links are made between schools and individual seafarers.

LINK

[Administrator]

The British Ship Adoption Society was formed in 1936 and, in 1946, there were some 1200 ships and over 800 schools participating in the movement. Every member school was expected to pay an annual fee of £3.3s. Fees paid by local education authorities qualified for a 50% grant from the Ministry of Education and shipping companies contributed according to the number of ships and tonnage owned,

With the decline in British shipping, the Seafarers' Education Service and the Marine Society amalgamated and, in 1976, absorbed what was left of the work of the BSAS. In 1988, the term Ship Adoption was changed to that of Sea Lines as today's links are made between schools and individual seafarers.

[Administrator]

Search for Cardiff authors of World War Two letters (CONTD)

A quest to find the Cardiff schoolgirls who wrote letters to a merchant navy seaman during World War Two is under way by his family in a bid to discover more about him.

Harry Hearl, who lived in Swindon, was in his 20s when he served on board RMS Aquitania.

During his service he received a number of letters from schoolchildren after he donated tennis equipment to their school.

But little is known about Mr Hearl and his connection to Cardiff.

So when a member of his family stumbled across a scrapbook he had kept, which contained several letters, his family hoped they would uncover more about him.
The letters were sent in the summer of 1940 by eight girls who were pupils at the former Ninian Park Girls' School in Grangetown.

The girls are likely to be in their 80s now but Mr Hearl's family hope they will get in touch with more information.

Mr Hearl was a wireless operator during the war and kept a scrapbook containing the letters he received from the children - Doris Llewellyn, Dorothy Evans, Olive Thomas, Myra Lewis, Phyllis Richards, Olive Sterling, Jean Sims and Olive Jackrell.

Jackie Hursey, a distant relative of Mr Hearl, explained: "He was my great-aunt's brother-in-law. We discovered the scrapbook while clearing my great-aunt's house of her possessions after she passed.

"It was just too good to throw out."

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