Letters from W. K. C. Guthrie to his wife, Adele, with occasional letters to their children, 1932-09-27 - 1945-02-01

Series

Reference Code: GBR/0269/DCPP/GUTH/7/2

Citation

Scope and Contents

Includes one letter to Adele (Ogilvy) the year before they married but mainly covering the wartime period when they were separated by Adele and the children moving to Wales and, from 1944, when he was posted to Istanbul. Letters in the summer of 1940 are addressed to Mrs Guthrie at Capel Curig in Wales. Also includes several letters to Robin and Anne from their father during the war. Letters from Cairo and Istanbul from 1944 to early 1945 include much detail about daily life, colleagues and Istanbul landmarks, although details of his actual work at the embassy (related to intelligence) are understandably vague. Most letters with envelopes.

Dates

Creation: 1932-09-27 - 1945-02-01

Creator

From the Fonds: Guthrie, William Keith Chambers, 1906 -1981 (historian and classicist) (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open.

Biographical / Historical

On 10 June 1933, Keith Guthrie married Adele Ogilvy, a Newnham Classics graduate whom he had met several years before as a College Supervisor for the Classical Tripos. They had two children, Robin (Robert) and Anne. Adele and the children were evacuated to Wales in 1940 during the Second World War, although Keith remained in Cambridge initially, before being commissioned into the Intelligence Corps. He was in London during the blitz before a period in St Albans (where his family joined him), then in 1944 was posted to Istanbul making use of his knowledge of Turkey and Turkish. His main duties were in counter-intelligence.

Extent

c. 110 item(s) (c. 110 letters)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Related Materials

Berridge, G. R. British diplomacy in turkey, 1583 to the present : A study in the evolution of the resident embassy (BRILL, 2009) - Chapter 8 on the 'Embassy at war' covers the embassy in Istanbul during the period Keith Guthrie was stationed there. (It's unclear which section he was working for, but may have been the Special Operations Executive.)