Swansea's Most Loyal Pen Pals ✍️

TOGETHER WITH

Good morning, Swansea!

Before social media, DMs and voice notes, friendships had to travel the long way round using good old snail mail.

This week, we open the mailbag on three standout pen pal stories with a local connection - from a Danish man who pedalled across Europe to meet his Swansea friend, to two wartime pals who met after half a century.

Catch you on Sunday!

Andrew.

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Back in 1949, a young Dane named Knud Mogensen pedalled all the way from the north coast of Denmark, to Swansea - just to meet his penpal.

He’d been writing to Gwyna Price, of Joiners Shop, Llangyfelach, for three years under the World Friendship Schools scheme, a post-war project that connected young people across Europe.

Knud left his home in Jutland with his bag and his bike, cycling more than 500 miles south, before crossing the North Sea to reach Harwich on the Essex coast. From there, he set off across England. “With a map and his good knowledge of English, he cycled as far as Oxford and then took the train for Swansea,” The Evening Post reported.

When the pair finally met, Gwyna told a reporter, “We have been in correspondence for three years on all sorts of matters affecting life in Wales and Denmark. Knud is an apprentice mechanic now taking a university course, and he is anxious to see some of our works.”

The story notes that his “progressive tour” of Wales would include a visit to a tinplate works and the descent of a coal mine! “Your people are very like my people in Jutland,” he said, though adding that he was “surprised to find such a shortage of cars in this country.”

In 1995, the Evening Post ran a story that could’ve been lifted straight from a film script.

Dorothy Prior from Gendros, had assumed her childhood pen pal - an American GI named Jack Baskin - had died in World War II. After several years of correspondence, she had last heard from him in 1945, and when his letters stopped, she feared the worst.

But half a century later, a letter arrived out of the blue. Jack was alive, living in Anchorage, Alaska, and still thinking of his old friend in Swansea.

“During the D-Day anniversary celebrations I wondered if he had been killed,” Dorothy told the paper.

On a whim, he’d written to the Swansea Post Office to ask for help in finding Dorothy, who then passed her details on to The Evening Post, who put out an appeal for help.

Within days, friends recognised Dorothy’s name and passed the news along. Soon after, Jack made the long journey to Swansea to meet his penpal for the very first time.

“It was great,” Jack said. “I couldn’t believe it was her. We immediately recognised each other… her hair was greyer, but her features hadn’t changed one bit.”

In January 1991, as the Gulf War dominated the headlines, the Evening Post launched a campaign inviting readers to write to local soldiers serving in the Middle East.

One of those to reply was Michelle Griffiths, a 24-year-old single mum from Morriston. She began corresponding with Lance Corporal Paul Jones from Gowerton, who was serving with the 21st Engineer Regiment in Saudi Arabia.

“He asked me for news about a particular football game,” Michelle told the Post. “I watched it on telly but I don’t know that much about it - so I sent him reports out of the paper.” “He loves the rain,” she added, “but he does sound fed up in his letters.”

I wonder if Michelle and Paul met upon his return to Swansea? Maybe he invited her to a Swans game at The Vetch Field 😊

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