[ George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe. ] Two Typed Letters Signed (both 'George Jellicoe') to military historian Barrie Pitt, regarding his 'escape from Leros' in the aftermath of the Dodecanese Campaign during the Second World War.

Both items 1p., 4to. Both in good condition, with light signs of age. ONE: 21 July 1983. A previous letter appears to have been lost, and he is 'dictating this in the country'. He begins his account: 'As far as the surrender at Leros is concerned my memory of the early events that evening is rather vague. It is very probable that I worked my way through to Brigade Headquarters with a small party consisting of Sgt. Workman, Cpl. Dryden and L/Cpl. Allen. However it would have been quite impossible to have got there by jeep as the trip involved more or less crossing the German positions. (However, we could well have started off by jeep).' At his destination he discovers that the Germans 'had taken the surrender of Brig. Tilney and the Headquarters Staff', and is 'generously' allowed by the German commander to search for 'a friend of mine, Lieut. Phipps, R.N.' He ends with a brief account of the circumstances surrounding his escape: 'As luck had it, we were just able to find a small caique in the north of the island before dawn broke and were able to lie up the following morning in a bay on Lipsos Island before sailing over that evening to the Turkish coast.' TWO: 24 November 1983. He gives Phipps's details, adding: 'Although I did not succeed in finding him in the dark I did stumble across quite a few of our own wounded and was able to give them some rudimentary first aid treatment.' He ends with a short account of his evacuation 'from Samos to Kusadasi together with the main body of the Greek Secret Squadron'.