December 19, 2023
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shares a Christmas letter written by a WWII soldier stationed in North Africa in 1942. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
In 1942 Gilbert Wyer from Nantucket, Massachusetts, wrote home from North Africa where he was serving in the American Field Service during WWII as an ambulance driver. He established an ambulance corps and saw much action. His letter was published in the local newspaper and is preserved in a scrapbook collection owned by the Nantucket Historical Association.
Gilbert “Gibby” Clifton Wyer (1905-1990) was the son of Eugene Wyer and Edith Freeman Fisher. Here is a photo of his mother Edith, who was the daughter of George S. Fisher and Mary E. Christian. She married Eugene Wyer on 4 October 1894. Gilbert was born 11 years later.
Gilbert was a direct descendant of old New England families, including several associated with the Quaker sects such as Tristam Coffin, Peter Folger, Thomas Macy, Richard Gardner, and Samuel Shattuck. Wyer never married or had children – but trust me, he had siblings and cousins whose descendants are still around!
Here is the beginning of a newspaper article about Wyer’s letter, from the scrapbook.
The scrapbook also contains this longer section of the article:
Here are details from Wyer’s letter about the Christmas of 1942 in North Africa:
The night before Christmas everyone was given a bottle of beer and a cigarette as a gift from the unit we were with. There was no package from home, as we got word through the post office a few days before that a ship had been sunk which had a great deal of the Middle East parcels on it, so it looked like a sad Christmas for us fellows. But we had some mail and I had eight letters myself from friends back in America.
I was in my dugout Christmas night reading my mail, when three fellows of the New Zealand unit came to visit me and brought along their packages they had received from home. Well, we ate fruit cake, made up some hot coffee and [had] canned fruit, candy, and cookies that were all homemade.
I shall never forget these fellows, as they are my buddies now and every night we play cards in the dugout by candlelight. Christmas morning I was awakened by a jerry plane, as we learn to know them by the sound of their motors, and sure enough it dropped two light bombs right near us and we saw the plane go off out to sea.
At breakfast I found out one bomb landed only four feet from two fellows in the dugout under a “bivy tent,” and the tent was in threads, but they were not hurt. The other bomb hit a motor bike and broke a window in a truck.
These buddies I speak of have served in the campaigns at Greece and Crete, so their tales are endless and hair-raising, but they all feel it is a better world we are to live in and these New Zealanders are fighters of the best.
An obituary written for Wyer, shared by the Nantucket Historical Association, noted the following:
Wyer loved children and animals, founder of original Boys Club, donated land on Francis Street, Nantucket Boys Club director, drove horse and buggy for Irvin Wyer Livery Service, school bus driver for Sconset to Town, owned Flying Feather Ranch (chickens), corner of Surfside and Bartlett roads; known for amazing Christmas lighting and displays. A good man with a kind heart.
This next photo shows horses in the snow in front of Wyers Livery Stable at 84 Centre Street, near the Cliff Road intersection, 1920. Owner: Irvin Mitchell Wyer. Sign reads: “Irvin M. Wyer, Trucks, Tractors, Work Horses, Gaines Dog & Cat Food. For Sale: Dressing.
Merry Christmas!
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Note on the header image: Gilbert “Gibby” Wyer in 1989, the year before he died. Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association.