Below you will find a small selection of letters and telegrams sent to Jimmie and Lily Ede on and around their marriage in November 1917.
Lily was seen as a source of worry for her family as she was unmarried at 41. Both Jimmie and Lily were very politically minded and active, Lily writing and trying to improve the impoverished conditions of teachers, while still trying to arrange her wedding while Jimmie was fighting on the western front. He saw joining the army as much a part of his civic duty as any other task he had undertaken as an Epsom councillor.
Full transcripts below.
390/11/13 1
Dear Lill,
I feel I must write and congratulate you upon your engagement to Mr Ede. Dear old girl, I cannot tell you how pleased I am. I know one thing, that Mr Ede is lucky in securing one so well fitted for the making of a real home.
God bless you dear, and give you all the happiness it is possible to have. We know you will have a strong arm to lean upon. Will & I both wish you all joy and happiness for love.
Yours ever,
Evelyn
390/11/13 2
My dearest Jimmie,
My very well wishes to you and Lily on your home coming. I cannot help feeling that our water was turned into the best of wine last Wednesday, and that ? had blessed us, from the beginning to the end there was nothing to mar our little gathering. My first prayer for you, was that if God wanted you for a missionary I might be willing to let you go. He has called you to a work that is a missionary work at home, and now I pray that his presence may go with and that you may be blessed with it, and that the wishes of Mr Shaw may be exemplified in your life and home. You may be sure that my prayers for you and Lily will be that you may, that the spirit of which may abide forever with you in all your work.
My very best love to you both
I am ever your loving mother
A M Ede
390/11/13
James Ede Hawthorns Epsom
No wellwishes more sincere than I today
Sidney Wicks