Exhibition inspired by gay WW2 lovers opens

Megan Hayward's exhibition allows visitors to listen to audio love letters through a rotary phone

An art exhibition inspired by love letters between two gay World War Two soldiers opens on Friday evening.

Hundreds of the messages were sent between Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher during the war.

Artist Megan Hayward collected love letters from people across the county and turned them into audio for the display at Oswestry's old yoga centre.

"We just put a call out to hear stories from across the decades... someone came forward with love letters that their grandmother had received," she said.

"They were also around the 1940s to do with Park Hall Camp, different men that had come and had danced with this guy’s grandmother.

"They're so identical to the way that the Gordon and Gilbert ones are written.

"It really just is a prime example about how love is love, even in the 1940s."

The exhibition will be held at the old yoga centre in Oswestry until 28 September

Ms Hayward is an artist in residence for arts programme ART-efact Oswestry and created a living room setting where visitors sit on a chair and pick up an old rotary phone which plays audio versions of the letters.

She said: "Now everything's so instant, if you don’t get a reply within an hour you think: 'Have I done something wrong?'

"I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like back then, waiting weeks for a letter and a hope that you’re still loved.

"We also got some more modern stories, people telling me how their parents met."

The display will be open on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays until 28 September and will feature work from three other artists in residence.

Ms Hayward's work was inspired by the Gordon and Gilbert love letters, sent between two gay World War Two soldiers while one was stationed in Oswestry

In 1939, Gilbert Bradley was stationed at Park Hall Camp in Oswestry.

He was in love with Gordon Bowsher, who was stationed at various locations across the country, at a time when gay activity was a court-martial offence.

The letters emerged after Mr Bradley's death in 2008, when a house clearance company sold them to a dealer specialising in military mail.

The messages are on display at Oswestry Town Museum.