These Gay WWII Soldiers Will Break Your Heart

I apologise for the clickbait-y title but as soon as I read about these two earlier this week I knew I wanted to cover them on the blog. I've been on a bit of a kick lately about proving that LGBT history didn't start with Stonewall (there are three other half-finished posts in my drafts involving LGBT figures during the American Revolution, the Regency period in England, and the 1920s) because I'm so tired of the straightwashing of history, you guys.

But I saw a post about these two men on facebook (one of those 'Did You Kno?' graphics with very little information and no sources - my sources are from BBC news and the Oswestry Town Museum) and was immediately curious enough to google everything I could in an attempt to learn more.

What I learned was that, in the notoriously homophobic 1940s, British soldiers Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher (THEY EVEN HAD THE SAME INITIALS YOU GUYS!) fell in love. I present to you all the tale (and excerpts from the letters) of Gordon and Gilbert.

Being gay in the 1940s was even worse than it is now. Not only was homosexuality illegal, in the British armed forces being caught having gay sex could get you court martialed and dishonourably discharged. Jail sentences for "gross indecency" were common, and much of society strongly disapproved of same-sex relationships. How any men had the courage to even flirt, let alone carry on a relationship, is beyond me. But somehow, beyond all odds, these two met.

Actually, though they were both soldiers, Bradley and Bowsher didn't meet in the army. The pair met while on vacation in 1938, and from what little I can tell, began a relationship either right away or very soon afterwards. But when WWII broke out the next year, in 1939, they were torn apart. Bowsher, from a well-to-do family, enlisted and trained as an infantryman.

Bradley, on the other hand, seemed to want to avoid serving. He apparently pretended to have epilepsy, though it didn't work and he ended up as a gunner.

They exchanged hundreds of letters. Gordon only ever signed them 'G', presumably so that if anyone found them on Gilbert, they could be passed off as from a woman.

photo from the Oswestry Town Museum

Can you imagine being in any sort of romantic relationship during WWII, not knowing if your beloved was safe, or even still alive? Read this excerpt, you guys:

Wednesday January 24th 1939

My darling,

... I lie awake all night waiting for the postman in the early morning, and then when he does not bring anything from you I just exist, a mass of nerves...

All my love forever,

G.

OR HOW ABOUT THIS ONE:

February 12 1940, Park Grange

My own darling boy,

There is nothing more than I desire in life but to have you with me constantly...

...I can see or I imagine I can see, what your mother and father's reaction would be... the rest of the world have no conception of what our love is - they do not know that it is love...

My sappy romantic ass just about dies every time I see the phrase 'my own darling boy' to be honest...

Writing to each other was incredibly risky, keeping the letters even moreso. The fact that they have survived so long is incredible, as it would have made sense for these men to destroy the letters in order to avoid being caught. It's very romantic that they kept them, if also profoundly stupid and risky.

In fact, in one letter Bowsher begs Bradley to do just that, saying:

Do one thing for me in deadly seriousness. I want all my letters destroyed. Please darling do this for me. Til then and forever I worship you.

Thank the gods that Bradley didn't listen. (From what I can tell I'm assuming Bowsher destroyed his letters; we only seem to have the letters that he wrote to Gilbert Bradley)

February 1st, 1941 K . C. Gloucester Regiment, Priors Road, Cheltenham

My darling boy,

For years I had it drummed into me that no love could last for life...

I want you darling seriously to delve into your own mind, and to look for once in to the future.

Imagine the time when the war is over and we are living together... would it not be better to live on from now on the memory of our life together when it was at its most golden pitch.

Your own G.

Jeez tell me someone I'm not the only one dying here from all this.

I wish I could report their story had a happy ending, that after the war they lived together in secret, but that isn't the case.

At one point, Bradley was sent to Scotland on a military mission. He met and fell for two other men. Rather surprisingly, he wrote and told Bowsher all about his romances. Perhaps even more surprisingly, Bowsher took it all in his stride, writing that he "understood why they fell in love with you. After all, so did I".

Although they continued to exchange throughout the war, the letters stopped in 1945.

However, both went on to enjoy interesting lives.

Mr Bowsher moved to my very own California and became a well-known horse trainer. (In a strange twist, he employed Sirhan Sirhan, who would go on to be convicted of assassinating Robert Kennedy.)

Mr Bradley was briefly entangled with the MP Sir Paul Latham, who was imprisoned in 1941 following a court martial for "improper conduct" with three gunners and a civilian. Sir Paul was exposed after some "indiscreet letters" were discovered. I have to wonder if any of those letters were from Bradley, but if they were no one seemed to know, as he never got in trouble for it.

Even if they didn't get their happily ever after together, Bradley kept the letters from Gordon Bowsher until his death in 2008, upon which they were acquired by the Oswestry Town Museum. At first, museum curator Mark Hignett assumed they were from a girlfriend, as many of them contained contents about stuff like about bed sheets, living conditions - their dreams for their future life together that never came.

But somehow (the internet doesn't seem to say how - believe me, I looked) it was discovered the "girlfriend" was actually a boyfriend. Because of this, Hignett believes that, in terms of historical worth, the correspondence is "invaluable".

"Such letters are extremely rare because they were incriminating - gay men faced years in prison with or without hard labour," he says. "There was even the possibility that gay soldiers could have been shot."

Work on a book is already under way at the museum, where the letters will also go on display.

I leave you with one final, touching excerpt:

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all our letters could be published in the future in a more enlightened time? Then all the world could see how in love we are.

Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher - I'm not sure how much more enlightened we are in 2019, but I hope you two are happy in the afterlife, and I hope somehow you know that your letters are being appreciated by the gays of today.

-Nym