These letters were written by my grandfather, Harry Lees Smith, to his girlfriend, later fiancée, and in due course wife, Dorothy Darlington, while he was journeying around the Dominions as a  traveller in cotton goods for Jaffé & Sons of Manchester.  The letters cover two trips, the first to South Africa, Australia & New Zealand from June 1912 to May 1913, and the second, much shorter, to Canada in October / November 1913.  There are also a couple of letters from the time in between the two trips when Dorothy was away on holiday in Anglesey.  The correspondence is pretty clearly not complete, with (for example) significant gaps in October 1912 and in both January and April 1913.

There is also one letter not from Harry, but from Orr, his travelling companion in New Zealand (word HTML pdf).

Harry and Dorothy were eventually married on 30 July 1914, in Manchester Cathedral.

All letters have been transcribed into both Word and HTML formats.  The HTML versions incorporate a few extra links; the Word versions have slightly better formatting and the odd footnote.  There are also scanned pdfs of the originals.  The dates given are those at the head of the letters, but it is usually clear that the letters were written over several days, with the dates being those on which they were started.  (NB the Berlin referred to below is a town in Canada, subsequently renamed Kitchener, not the German capital).

back to main index

Date Sent from


24 June 1912 RMS Kenilworth Castle Word HTMLpdf
13 July 1912 Capetown Word HTMLpdf
28 July 1912 Port Elizabeth Word HTMLpdf
7 August 1912 South Africa Word HTMLpdf
14 August 1912 East London Word HTMLpdf
19 August 1912 Durban Word HTMLpdf
4 September 1912 Johannesburg Word HTMLpdf
7 September 1912 Johannesburg Word HTMLpdf
11 September 1912 Pretoria Word HTMLpdf
30 September 1912 Capetown Word HTMLpdf
6 October 1912 SS Themistocles Word HTMLpdf
2 November 1912 SS Maheno Word HTMLpdf
10 November 1912 Auckland Word HTMLpdf
15 November 1912 SS Wimmera Word HTMLpdf
22 November 1912 Queenstown NZ Word HTMLpdf
12 December 1912 Wellington Word HTMLpdf
17 December 1912 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
19 December 1912 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
29 December 1912 Wentworth Falls Word HTMLpdf
6 January 1913 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
2 February 1913 Melbourne Word HTMLpdf
20 February 1913 Melbourne Word HTMLpdf
23 February 1913 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
5 March 1913 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
10 March 1913 Sydney Word HTMLpdf
14 May 1913 Cape Town Word HTMLpdf
25 August 1913 Manchester Word HTMLpdf
27 August 1913 Manchester Word HTMLpdf
10 October 1913 Montreal Word HTMLpdf
17 October 1913 Montreal Word HTMLpdf
20 October 1913 Montreal Word HTMLpdf
26 October 1913 Toronto Word HTMLpdf
28 October 1913 Berlin Word HTMLpdf
4 November 1913 Berlin Word HTMLpdf
13 November 1913 Quebec Word HTMLpdf
20 November 1913 Montreal Word HTMLpdf

back to main index