Document of the Month

Welcome to the Collection Showcase section of Warwickshire's Past Unlocked. On this page you can explore some of the interesting and important documents that we hold at Warwickshire County Record Office and learn about the historical background to their creation.

Each month we will highlight a different Document of the Month and display links to PDF copies of the previous 12 months documents for your enjoyment.

For earlier editions of Document of the Month, please see our archive.

List of Christmas Presents

CR4356/1/769

We all know the struggle of getting meaningful Christmas gifts for our loved ones, so December’s Document of the Month is this list of Christmas gift ideas from the “Doreen Wright of Leek Wootton” collection. A transcript is provided below:

Christmas
Pa: every body is contributing
to get him a super over-
coat
Ma: I’m ordering honey – other
wise can’t think.
Me: Photograph
Nick: Good money box
Bill: something wheeled
Mary: Something girlish
Rosamund: ?
Ida: ?
Felix: ? 15th + Christmas

List of Christmas presents
Warwickshire County Record Office, CR4356/1/769

Dating from c.1939, it lists members of Doreen’s family (including herself), and what she intends to purchase for each of them. As we can see, Doreen had ideas for some of her family members, such as her “Pa” (who we believe was her father-in-law Arthur Fitzherbert Wright), who was to receive a “super overcoat”, which everyone was contributing to. Some family members, like Bill and Mary, both have slightly more vague suggestions of “something wheeled” and “something girlish” respectively. Nick, Bill and Mary are the children of Doreen and Gilbert. However, poor Rosamund and Ida have question marks next to their names, so they must have been a bit trickier to buy for¹! Felix also has the 15th next to his name and after some genealogical research, we know that his birth was registered in the December quarter of 1935², which means Doreen had a birthday present to purchase for him as well!

Doreen Wright 

Doreen Wright lived what appears to have been a fascinating life. She was a talented artist (some of her work has featured previously as Document of the Month) and swimmer. She competed in the first British Empire Games in 1930 with her sister Joyce³. Much more about Doreen’s life can be found in the book called Doreen’s Diary: She Could Not Have Loved More.

She is perhaps best known for her wartime diary, which is deposited here at the Record Office as part of the same collection as this document. The diary was started by Doreen after the news that her RAF pilot husband, Gilbert Francis Moncrieff Wright, was missing in action in 1940. It describes her life during the war whilst she was living with her parents-in-law at Wootton Court. It was intended by Doreen as a means for her to keep her husband updated on everything he had missed upon his return from active service. However tragically, this was not to be. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, he is buried in Berneville Communal Cemetery in France⁴.

The diary was discovered amongst her effects by her family after she died in 2003, and transcribed and published in 2012 as part of a project called Doreen’s Diary: The Life of an Indomitable Woman in Warwickshire During World War II⁵. A few copies of the publication produced as part of this project are available for purchase from the Record Office shop.

References

1. List of Christmas Presents, Warwickshire County Record Office, CR4356/1/769.
2. Information gathered from FreeBMD (accessed 10/10/2024).
3. Leek Wootton History Group, Doreen’s Diary: She Could Not Have Loved More, 2012, pages 2-5.
4. Information gathered from Commonwealth Wargraves Commission (accessed 16/10/2024).
5. More information about the project can be found on the Leek Wootton and Guys Cliffe History Group website (accessed 14/09/2024)

Please click on the links below to view PDF copies of previous Document of the Month articles (opens in new window)