A deeply moving letter, written by an orphanage choirboy and hastily stuffed down the side of a church pew 125 years ago, has been found by workmen restoring the building.
Addressed simply to ‘Dear friend’, the letter was written on 11 August 1897 by 13-year-old William Elliott, on the back of a chorister’s order of service sheet, at Sunderland Parish Church, also known as Holy Trinity – now Seventeen Nineteen - on the North East coastline.
In it, William - one of 50 sons of seafaring men housed at the nearby Sunderland Orphan Asylum – begs not to be forgotten in a humble and tear-jerking request.
