Elizabeth, Lady Kitson is the founder of the Federation of Army Wives. We were delighted to receive this from her – commenting on the value of Reading Force
I would like to congratulate Reading Force for its excellence and achievement – it’s a wonderful concept. I have been an Army daughter and an Army wife, and I know how important communications are when families are separated by deployments and constant moves.
In the war, my mother and I were thrilled whenever we got a letter from my father. We always wrote and told him everything we were doing. It was six years before he came home from the war. Later, when I was twelve, my father, mother and brother went to Malaya and I was sent to boarding school. The first letter I sent them came back with twenty spelling mistakes highlighted in red. I was told I was stupid and didn’t try hard enough by the school as well. Dyslexia hadn’t been heard of in those days, so I got my best friend to write my letters. I could draw pictures though, so Reading Force would have been brilliant for me at that time.
I didn’t let it hold me back though. We can’t all be good at everything, but we can each be good at something. I was lucky that as a child I found my passion. I rode ponies and horses internationally and got a scholarship to teach riding which I was even able to continue to do when I married a soldier. I was also fortunate that my husband, Frank, taught me with much patience to read and write.
Reading is a fantastic way of getting information about everything, as well as giving great pleasure to be shared by all. Books can take you to places in your imagination that can be wondrous and exciting.
May Reading Force go from strength to strength which I am sure it will.
Good reading – from Elizabeth Kitson
Note from Alison.
Over Christmas I read the personal memoir written by Lady Kitson’s husband, General Sir Frank Kitson. His book (A different sort of war) concludes with the following:
‘In conclusion I would like to underline the fact that the best thing I ever did, was to persuade Elizabeth to become my wife. It may that in some quarters I am regarded as having moved the army forward in the field of low intensity warfare, but I believe that Elizabeth’s work for the families and dependants will be remembered long after my innovations have been forgotten.’