CalmView: Record

DHW - (Derick) Humphrey Waterfield Archive
- 1 - Journals
  - 6 - Italy, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey: 1955

Ref No	DHW/1/6/3
Title	Letter from William Dewhurst and enclosure
Admin/Biog History	Frederick [Derick] Waterfield and his wife Barbara took their own lives on 24/25 June 1940 in Menton, France.
Description	A one-page handwritten letter dated 22 March 2006 from William Dewhurst to William Waterfield, enclosing a photocopy of a six-page handwritten letter dated 27 August 1940 from Betty Duff to Dewhurst's mother Audrey. In Dewhurst's letter he notes the enclosed letter and explains how Frederick [Derick] Waterfield had told his mother Audrey that he was in love with her when she was staying with the Waterfields in Menton in 1930. The enclosed letter records Betty Duff's account of the double suicide of Frederick [Derick] and Barbara Waterfield in Menton on 24/25 June 1940. This includes a description of the event and outlines a number of possible reasons for it including Barbara's fragility and her fear of their incarceration in a German concentration camp, and Derick's feelings about the war. It also notes that Humphrey and Anthony Waterfield's response to their parents' death and how Humphrey Waterfield is working in a hospital in Gloucester with the Friends Ambulance Unit and that Tony [Anthony] Waterfield is living with his wife Honor Northern in Chelsea and working for the Air Ministry. After more general content, Duff ends her letter by expressing her shock and sadness at the death of the Waterfields. Related material can be found in DHW/1/6/1 - Letter from Frederick [Derick] Waterfield addressed to Anthony Waterfield.
Date	22 Mar 2006
Level	Item
Extent	1 letter with enclosure