Sydney Gamble, a London fire brigade member who had lost all hope in finding his son, Lieutenant Richard Summer Gamble, missing at the Ferme du Bois battle in France in May 1915, wrote attaching his picture and as many details as he could, including a drawing of the Viking soldier in full armour tattoo he had, this letter is part of the archive of letters sent by relatives of missing soldiers from the First World War asking for help from the Spanish King Alfonso XIII at the Royal Palace archive in Madrid, Spain, December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Juan Medina
MADRID (Reuters) - A vast archive of letters sent by relatives of soldiers missing in World War One seeking the help of Spain's King Alfonso XIII in finding them has been published online for war historians and families to comb through.
Spain was neutral in the 1914-18 war. But King Alfonso emerged as a diplomatic and humanitarian go-between for the families of the missing after successfully tracking down the husband of a French woman who wrote begging him for help. The man was found in a German prisoner of war camp.
