How Gilbert and Gordon's story was discovered
In the beginning.
The story of Then All The World began not in a grand archive or historic library, but with a quiet eBay search. In late 2012 3 letters addressed to Gunner Gilbert Bradley (left on first picture) were purchased from an eBay seller by Mark Hignett (second picture) for display in Oswestry Town Museum, which he helped found earlier that year. Gunner Gilbert Bradley was undergoing his basic training at Park Hall Camp near Oswestry at the time he received these letters. They included one from his Mum, another from his Dad and a third that was signed 'your ever loving G'.
The following week another 3 letters were up for sale and brought by Mark, followed by another 3 the next week. Mark decided that 12 was a nice round number for his envisaged display. However, to his horror, he was outbid on the final 3. He resolved that this would not happen again and embarked on a quest to purchase any further letters offered for sale. Over the next 18 months he purchased in the region of 1000 letters and related paperwork.
Realizing that the letters contained a fantastic social history story of life during WWII, which included a number of letters between lovers who had been separated by war, Mark started to transcribe the letters so that the story could be told. Along with his wife Harriet and other museum volunteers, they carefully copied the envelopes and the actual letters, then transcribed them to preserve the original correspondence, some of which had been written on very flimsy paper and in some cases in pencil. The letters to Gunner Gilbert Bradley were from a number of people including his Mum and Dad, his 2 sisters, his Brother, 'your ever loving G', his former landlady, colleagues from Cadbury's and a number of friends.
In 2014, whilst transcribing a letter, Mark discovered that 'your ever loving G' was in fact another soldier called Gordon. It then dawned on him that he had accidentally bought an archive of love letters between 2 gay soldiers from the WWII period. Transcribing continued until 2015 when Mark heard an appeal on BBC Radio Shropshire for stories suitable to be included in the Shrewsbury LGBTQ history festival. He immediately contacted that station and was put in touch with the festival organisers who asked Mark if he would do a presentation at one of their events. The rest as they say is history. Radio Shropshire passed the story onto Midlands Today. It was then picked up by the Caters News Agency who filmed in the museum. Metro and Daily Mail online ran half page spreads on the story and it then went viral, with Mark receiving emails from around the world. From 2015 the story has led to a continuing worldwide interest and a number of very surreal moments.
Mark explains how he was sitting at home one Friday evening in 2016 when the phone rang. When he answered it a man with a very American accent asked if he was the guy with the Gilbert Bradley letters. When Mark confirmed this, the man introduced himself as Andrew Valentine, a Hollywood film producer. Mark says he played it very cool, after all he 'spends many an evening talking to Hollywood film producers'. Andrew explained that he was interested in visiting Mark to talk about the letters and when Mark asked him when he was thinking of flying over, he was stunned when Andrew asked if it was ok to meet the following Monday, in 3 days time. Andrew did arrive on the Monday and was fascinated by the story contained in the letters. Following 2 more visits he agreed an option to explore telling the story through the medium of film.
In the meantime Mark attended meetings on the National Heritage Open Days Organising Committee in London. At one of those meetings in early 2017 a lady from the National Trust explained that they were looking for 4 'untold stories' to promote inclusivity within the organization. By the end of the meeting they had found one of those stories - Gilbert and Gordon. Mark found himself working with a very innovative artist, Olivia Winteringham, who came up with the idea of the 'Ink to Ash to Diamond' Festival. You can explore this event more on our corresponding website page.
Since the story about the letters broke, Mark has been kept very busy. He has given talks to over 200 groups from across the UK, including a number of corporate concerns wanting to promote equality and diversity in their organisations. With further talks currently booked up until 2027. In 2022 a couple getting married in Virginia decided that rather than exchange vows, they would like to get married whilst exchanging sayings from Gordon's letters. As they have stood the test of time, Mark helped choose a suitable selection of sayings and the wedding went ahead as planned.
A number of art related projects have grown up from the story, including the art-efact project shown for the 2024 HODs festival in Oswestry. Mark is still writing a book of their story, in between other projects and as time permits, with the first 3 chapters nearing completion.
Another 2 surreal moments came almost together. Mark was contacted by Matthew Postlethwaite, nephew of Pete Postlethwaite from South Shropshire. Pete was himself a well loved actor, and Matthew asked if he could be considered for any future film plans for the story (Matthew was Nipper in Peaky Blinders). Following this, actor Garret Clayton also expressed interest. A short film (8 mins) called The Letter Men (third picture) was created by Andrew Valentine in 2022 and had its worldwide premier at the Tribeca film festival in New York, swiftly followed by a showing at 'OutFest' and guess what? Yes, that's right, it starred Matthew Postlethwaite and Garret Clayton in the 2 lead roles. The film is now available to view on YouTube and to view on this website's corresponding page. Remember to check the local people mentioned in the credits at the end. Andrew is currently overseeing the writing of a full length feature film script of their love story with the hopes that it can go into production as early as 2027.
In 2024 Mark was invited to London by the Heritage Open Days Team as they were celebrating their 30th anniversary and were going to produce what they called their 30 for 30 gallery. One legacy project from each year was to be included in their permanent gallery. Mark was delighted to discover that not only were they going to include the ink to Ink to Ash to Diamond Project (see website page), but that it was in fact one of the top 10 of all time. The legacy lives on.
Who would have thought that Gilbert and Gordon living their lives and love to the full over 80 years ago, would have been having such an impact across the world today. Their love lives on as we thread our way through and discover a 'more enlightened time', something that they both wished for way back in the middle of World War II.