Emotive wartime letters to fallen hero from Enniskillen revealed in Charlie Lawson video interview

In a new podcast with author and military historian Eddie O’Sullivan, Lawson reveals details of the heart-rending correspondence between the siblings when the young officer from Enniskillen was fighting in Italy.

Lawson also speaks candidly about how the ‘This Week in the Italian Campaign’ podcast invitation had led him to reopen a box of his late mum Muriel’s most treasured possessions – including letters written to John which were returned to sender unopened as the recipient had been killed in action before delivery.

The YouTube programme covers events in Italy between 1943 and 1945.

Lawson discovered the circumstances of his uncle’s death – during an early morning attack across the River Trigno on Italy’s Adriatic coast in October 1943 – when he found an online documentary film about the brutal battle.

The film included a detailed account of the attack, and Lt Glennie’s death – written by Royal Irish Fusiliers captain Lawrie Franklyn-Vaile.

The harrowing narrative was contained in a letter from the captain to his wife in the UK.

Born in Enniskillen, John Glennie attended the town’s Portora Royal School. He was commissioned into the Royal Ulster Rifles and soon posted to the Royal Irish Fusiliers in Sicily in August 1943.

“My mother spoke openly and very, very emotionally about her brother,” Lawson said.

“She adored him very much. His loss stuck with her, her whole life.”

Commenting on how he reopened the box of documents after discovering the documentary, Lawson recalled opening the letters that had remained sealed for almost 80 years.

“They had been returned because the addressee was deceased… she left them sealed,” Lawson said.

“This afternoon I gently opened them to read them. A more moving afternoon I haven’t had for a long time."

You can see the interview in episode 9 of This Week in the Italian Campaign, a weekly YouTube programme at www.youtube.com/live/msVvXJQNEKg

A half-day conference about the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and other Irish regiments in the Italian campaign is being held on 11 November at the Inniskillings Museum.For more information contact: [email protected] or on 0207 700 5300.