Pensioner, 76, delighted to unearth her cutely-misspelled 1952 letter to ‘Santer’ asking for sweets

It’s a centuries-old tradition that risks being pushed aside by modern alternatives like email or even video messaging.

But a retiree who has unearthed her own handwritten letter to Santa written in 1952 said yesterday how it has evoked memories of a “different time” when even a bag of sweets was a longed-for gift.

Deirdre Quemby, 76, discovered the letter she wrote at the age of six in a box of her late mother’s belongings that she decided to sort through in the run-up to the festive period.

The charming letter, extensively misspelled, is written in pencil and contains a hopeful plea for “sweets” to be sent to her, a rare commodity in 1952, when the UK was still grappling with post-war food rationing.

Deirdre Quemby, 76, discovered the letter she wrote at the age of six in a box with her late mother’s belongings.

Miss Quemby writes that she wants a ‘Mackey Mouse’ book, that is, the Disney character Mickey, a china tea set ‘like mammy got’, a dressing gown and a bottle of ‘sent’ for her mother Olive, a ‘ hakeakafe’, which means handkerchief – for nanny, and a book for ‘granny’.

He says goodbye sending affection to ‘Santer’ and adds numerous kisses.

Miss Quemby, a former comedian who is about to turn 60 as a dance teacher, said she would have written the letter when the family lived in her grandfather’s pub in Shepshed, Leicestershire.

His mother and father, Leonard, a former soldier working at an engineering company, later moved to the village of Mountsorrel, where his late mother worked at the local Rolls-Royce factory. Miss Quemby still lives today in the village just outside Leicester.

He says goodbye sending affection to ‘Santer’ and adds numerous kisses

“I don’t remember writing the letter, but finding it has brought back wonderful memories,” she said.

‘I can still see the fire in the sitting room at the front of the pub where we spent most of our time. My grandfather used to keep a bottle of horse liniment by the fire to keep it warm. Every time we had discomfort or pain, they would rub it on us.

I can see the 9-inch black and white TV and the big leather sofa.

‘Getting sweets was a big problem back then. We still had rations. I remember the ration book.

Sweets and confectionery only stopped rationing in 1953, eight years after the end of the war. Food rationing in Britain ended completely in July of the following year, when restrictions on buying and selling meat and bacon were lifted.

Miss Quemby met and married John Hayward, who began his working life as a sheet metal worker at Rolls-Royce in Mountsorrel. The factory burned down in the 1960s and he went to work for the Severn Trent water company. Hayward died at the age of 67 in 2008.

In the picture: Deirdre. 18-month-old (right) with her mother, Olive (left)

The couple had no children.

Miss Quemby, who kept her maiden name after she married, said: “Mum died 16 years ago and when I collected her belongings I found cardboard boxes full of old, moldy documents.” There were so many of them from so long ago that it was impossible to go through them all in detail.

‘The particular box where I found the letter which she had obviously kept as a keepsake as it was special to her. They put it on top of my closet at home, and recently I thought, “I need to go through this stuff.”

“I thought the best bits and pieces were in the photo albums, so I was very surprised to find this letter. I don’t know why my mother kept it.

The Children’s Literacy Charity has previously expressed fear that technology is “taking over” Christmas letter writing, as websites now offer children the chance to send letters to Santa online. Some even offer an instant messaging service to the North Pole, promising a quick reply from Santa Claus.

An app that has become increasingly popular with families also offers children the chance to follow Santa’s progress around the world on Christmas Eve.