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Thanks for the suggestion, Bob. I tried what you said, and also 17/1/43, as the second digit is not easy to read. Nothing resulted that suggested some Es would help.
I wonder if the compiler used the first letters of each word. D = Dear, Y = You, I = I, and G could indicate her/her first name as in "G.M.B."
I would have more faith in my own theory if the second letter was E, not A, as the owner of the autograph book was Ethel.
Hi Bob, and thanks for your welcome and your efforts. I'm relieved that I didn't post on entirely the wrong forum!
There are a few blank pages in the album. There's one (recto) opposite the page with the letters but on its the other side (verso) is an ink sketch of a steamer dated 10/8/19 by, probably, a New Zealand soldier about to go home after a long delay. (In 1919 a shortage of shipping meant ANZAC soldiers had to kick their heels in the UK for months after the Armistice.)
On the other side (recto) of the" letters" page is a very nice pencil sketch by a sergeant of the 1st York & Lancaster Regiment dated August 1919.
This one might guess that the letters were written in the album in August 1919 - which makes the "19/1/43" date even more curious.
The puzzle is one of those that comes my way from time to time. I have one postcard with a soldier's message in an archaic form of Welsh and another with mirror handwriting.s "SWAK" ("Sealed With A Kiss") and a postmark that pre-dated the acronym's first recorded usage.
Recently I bought the 1919 autograph book of a wardmaid at Fargo Military Hospital, a couple of miles north of Stonehenge. It included a grid of jumbled letters. Please see this thread on another site:
https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/291 … nt-3019119
Note the apparent mixing of commas and full stops, and the curious date of 19/1/43, which suggest January 19, 1943 - 24 years after the other entries.
Any suggestions would be welcome, please.
(As a very long-established member of the Great War Forum, I sometimes to have to draw on my patience with new members who have yet to get the hang of things. Please be equally patient with me as a newbie here!)
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