Waddesdon Manor
From 23 March 2016 onwards
Around 100 letters have been discovered by an electrician laying new cabling in the roof of the Five Arrows at Waddesdon. They are believed to have been sent between Eliza Turnham, the landlord’s daughter, and her sweetheart, James ‘Jack’ Wilson Cox, the son of Miss Alice de Rothschild’s chauffeur. Jack enlisted in the OBLI and went overseas in early 1915.
Waddesdon Estate’s archivist, Catherine Taylor, said, ‘We think that Eliza must have hidden the letters away, and they are one of the most significant recent finds at Waddesdon. Eliza was 13 years older than Jack and, in some of them, it seems like writing between an older sister and a younger brother. But in others, he talks about “perhaps stealing a kiss”, and they are very romantic. It’s really intriguing.’
Jack survived the war and returned to Waddesdon, living close to Eliza. He worked, like his father, as a chauffeur for the Rothschilds. In 1923, however, he married a girl from Luton. Eliza never married, dying in 1953.
Selections from the letters are to go on display at Waddesdon Manor from 23 March, as part of the Tales from the Archives Exhibition.
For further details, see www.waddesdon.org.uk