Wartime letter reunites Scunthorpe childhood friends

Bernard Duff and Barbara Donald are finally reunited

Childhood friends have been reunited thanks to a wartime note found inside a charity shop book.

Bernard Duff, 93, and Barbara Donald, 94, grew up just a few houses apart in Scunthorpe.

They lost touch 40 years ago but Mr Duff found a note, written in 1942 by Mrs Donald, tucked in a book - showing both her married and maiden names.

Mr Duff said: "I took the note out, had a read through it and I just couldn't believe it when I came to the name."

Bernard Duff and Barbara Donald were childhood friends

The note read: "The time at which this is being written is 5:10pm. The war is not troubling us much. We have had very few bombs here. We are having a bit of trouble with rations, but are able to overcome the difficulty pretty well. I am sitting by the fire and haven't been to school, owing for a touch of flu."

The note was signed Barbara Godden, (now Donald), aged 14.

Mr Duff said: "As far as I was aware, there was only one Barbara Godden. When I looked at the bottom [of the letter] and found Godden had been added, I knew it was Barbara."

Mr Duff found the note tucked into a book bought from a charity shop

Fearing his friend may have died since, Mr Duff set out to reunite the letter with Mrs Donald's family, and he approached Scunthorpe Live for help tracking them down.

Mr Duff's appeal was picked up by Mrs Donald's son, who helped reunite the pair.

Mrs Donald revealed how she had taken a number of books to a charity shop following the death of her husband.

She had bought the book, Britain at War, "a long time after the war" and thought it was "a suitable place" to keep the note.

Mrs Donald said: "I'd taken it to a charity shop about a week before [the appeal]. We've got so many memories."

One such memory is a trip the pair took to the River Trent during a snowstorm when they were aged nine and 10 respectively.

Mrs Donald as a young woman

Mr Duff said he "couldn't believe it" when he saw the name on the note

Mr Duff said: "When I saw Barbara Godden, the first thing that flashed in my mind was that [trip]."

Meanwhile, Mrs Donald reflected on the serendipitous nature of their reunion.

"It's a bit weird really," she said. "That note, in that particular book... Mysterious."