Lieutenant Colin Simper’s letters to his wife, Irene, capture a tender love story lived in the shadow of the Second World War. Preserved in the Australian War Memorial, they reveal one couple’s devotion across distance, duty, and sacrifice.
The love letters of Lieutenant Colin Douglas Simper, preserved in the Australian War Memorial’s National Collection, reveal a powerful story of romance, separation and loss during the Second World War. Colin’s heartfelt words to his wife Irene are decorated with spirals of “I love you” and sketches of their future together.
Letter written to Irene. It is dated 28 August 1941 and has 'I love you' written in a spiralling pattern across the text of the letter. AWM RC02280
Colin Simper was born in March 1919 in Clarendon, South Australia, the youngest of seven children. He worked with his father, a Boer War veteran and blacksmith, before joining the Militia in 1937. When war broke out he transferred to the Australian Imperial Force, quickly rising through the ranks.
On a Sunday evening in April 1941, Colin attended a dance at Semaphore Beach in Adelaide. There he met 19-year-old Irean Bean. Colin had found the woman he wanted to marry and began writing her letters brimming with affection and optimism.
Picture me darling as I write around and around in a circle I love you, I love you...
Colin Simper to Irene, 28 Aug 1941
A wartime wedding
Eight months later, on 12 December 1941, Colin and Irene were married at Irene’s family home in Blackwood, north-west of Melbourne. The ceremony was simple and intimate, with traditional wedding charms including a silver horseshoe for luck. Their honeymoon lasted two days, with Colin ordered to stay near a telephone in case he was recalled to duty. By Christmas Day he had arrived in Darwin with the 43rd Battalion.
Colin Douglas Simper and his wife Irene on their wedding day, 12 December 1941
Cardboard horseshoe wedding charm wrapped in white satin ribbon. Irene wore this on her wedding day.
Studio portrait of Irene Simper on her wedding day.
Colin was in Darwin when Japanese aircraft bombed the city in February 1942, and he was involved in trying to defend against the attacks on the town and its port.
With periods of leave few and far between, letters became Colin and Irene’s lifeline during this time of separation. The Australian War Memorial holds dozens of their letters, many decorated with poems, sketches and patterns. One of the most moving, dated 28 August 1941, features the words “I love you” spiraled across the page.
After Irene gave birth to their first child, Eleanor, in August 1943, Colin wrote home with pride.
Colin and daughter, Eleanor. AWM2024.6.156
A Christmas gift
Among the most precious items in the collection is a sound recording Irene made for Colin in 1943. On one side she speaks to him:
“You are missed so much … Eleanor is with her grandmother today. I cannot wait for your return so the three of us can be together again.”
On the other side she sings a song, which she declares a Christmas gift for her husband. The seven minute recording is a moving example of technology being used to connect those at home with those on the front lines.
"Hello there, Colin! This is cheerio from your own Irene, do you recognise my voice? Heaps of love and kisses for you, darling."
This is a recorded letter from Irene Simper to her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Colin Simper, in 1943 preserved on this 78 r.p.m lacquer disc.
The disc itself is made of metal and coated in a layer of lacquer, which was the standard format for recordings and broadcasts in the 1930s to 50s.
These sound messages enabled communication between the front lines and the home front during the Second World War.
But the technology of the time, while groundbreaking, came with significant constraints. Recording technology in the 1940s, unlike today, was not available to every household in Australia.
To record these letters, families would usually pay a studio to deliver their message but cost per second, studio time and technological limitations meant the duration of these oral letters were constrained.
Like the letter from Irene, the messages were often scripted to ensure every word counted. The speakers focused on essentials like love, family updates, and the words of encouragement all wrapped in the hum of early sound technology.
Lieutenant Simper died from wounds received in action in Borneo on 9 June 1945.
But this letter remains a powerful example on the innovative and personal ways families stay connected during the separation of war.
"God bless you darling and remember, I love you always."
Loss at Tarakan
Their letters, continued throughout 1944 as Colin trained in jungle warfare and was posted to the 2/48th Battalion. Considered a “good, intelligent and vigorous instructor”, with “good bearing and pleasing personality”, he became a pioneer platoon commander.
Photo of Colin captioned: "I would be going without pants if I thought the C.O would let me." AWM2024.6.156-19
In April 1945, Colin sailed with the 2/48th Battalion to Morotai to prepare for the landings at Tarakan, Borneo.
On 7 June, Colin was leading his on patrol when they encountered Japanese forces. While trying to recover one of his wounded men, he was shot in the back. Despite surgery at a casualty clearing station, he died of wounds two days later. He was 26 years old. Originally buried at Tarakan, he was reinterred after the war at Labuan War Cemetery.
Irene was widowed with two young babies, including the six-month-old Douglas. After the war she sold their block of land at Clapham and she and her children moved to her parents’ home. A talented florist, Irene later remarried and had two more children.
Pencil drawing of Irene in bed, holding four babies, and himself by the bed holding a bunch of flowers. AWM RC02279
Letter from Colin to Irene. AWM RC02280
Today, the Memorial holds Colin and Irene’s letters, recordings and wedding mementoes as part of the National Collection. They were discovered in 1998 by the couple's daughter, Eleanor, while sorting out her mother's belongings after Irene's death. When donating them, Eleanor reflected:
"These letters reveal the hopes, the dreams that Colin and Irene have left with us.
"I share these dreams for they belong to us all."
Lieutenant Colin Simper’s name is inscribed on the Roll of Honor among the 40,000 Australians who died during the Second World War.
Read and transcribe Colin’s letters via Transcribe.
