Diaries, letters and photographs belonging to Mrs Barbara Hurst, nee Moulster, who...

CONTENTS

Z 966/1 Diaries 1944-1986 This section is embargoed for 30 years i.e. until 2027

Z 966/2 Letters 1946-7; 1986

Z 966/3 Photographs 1940-1976

Acc. 7915

These were deposited by Mrs Hurst's executor, her brother Mr Les J. Moulster, on 3rd November 1997.

Gwendoline Barbara Moulster, known as Barbara, was baptised at St Peter's church, Dunstable on 8th June 1927, the daughter of William and Doris Moulster of 141 West Street. In 1944, when she was about eighteen and still living at 141 West Street with her parents and younger brother Les (whom she refers to as Squib in her diaries), she met and fell in love with Gennaro Capozzoli, a prisoner of war interned in a camp in Totternhoe Road, Dunstable. Gennaro's home was in Teggiano near Salerno, Italy, where his parents, younger brother Franco and a sister lived; other relatives lived in Salerno and Naples.

Barbara Moulster kept a record of their romance, and all Gennaro's letters and cards, from the day they met in 1944 until 1986, when the record stops. There were about 28 years during which they lost touch with each other and both married other people, but when they met again Barbara resumed her diary exactly where she had left off in 1946.

The depositor believes that Gennaro died early in 1997. Barbara died about six months later on 21 June 1997 in Dunstable.