SOLDIERS serving, fighting and dying on distant frontlines still crave the simple “creature comforts”

of home.

And a Worcestershire couple are making sure ‘vital’ supplies are getting to the boys and girls in Afghanistan where seven years later, the battle with the Taliban grinds on amidst some of the hardest terrain on earth.

David Harrison and partner Jan Fowler, from Kempsey, near Worcester, pack boxes from their ‘war room’ – their home’s conservatory, which end up in the hands of grateful servicemen and women. They are continuing a long tradition of ‘comfort parcels’ sent in both the world wars from the home front.

The letters of thanks the couple get back – written on Official British Forces Post Office scripts known as blueys (often short and sweet) – give a stark view of not only the daily action, but also the day-to-day service that is the British private soldier’s eternal lot.

Starting in October 2009, the couple diligently started sending their boxes to a friend’s son-in-law who was posted to Afghanistan as a simple “thank you”.

But they have ended up sending nearly a ton-and-a-half of goods since then to dozens of other soldiers.

The boxes are crammed with all sorts including boiled sweets, crisps, socks, those little free packets of shampoo in the magazines, and biscuits such as digestives or custard creams – all paid for from their own pocket (and the pockets of donors).

The average cost of a box is just £3 but for the soldiers who are living on Army ration packs, the effect on their morale is huge, according to notes sent back from sergeants and unit commanders.

Since starting the couple have been regularly joined with donations from the local Slimming World group and other villagers, and since your Worcester News publicised their effort in September readers from across Worcestershire have joined in.

This week they are expecting 25 boxes from pupils at North Bromsgrove High School and goods from Lyppard Grange Community Centre in Warndon Villages.

“We talk about these guys as if we know them,” says Miss Fowler.

“They’re like family and the stories they tell are pretty grim sometimes, so this is the least we can do.” The couple correspond with two or three soldiers via e-mail and are on first name terms.

Every box is numbered, and each is sent to an individual soldier and then doled out among that trooper’s section.

The addressees have ranged from a squad of army dog handlers who help raid Taliban bomb factories to the engineers who have “blown up tree lines which the Taliban use as firing points.”

Although the squaddies try to get a letter back to Kempsey not every box sent earns a reply – not surprising given the conditions the troops face.

One soldier writes: “Sorry for the state of my hand-writing but if you could see the hell hole I am writing in you would understand.”

For Mr Harrison, the simple pleasure is of knowing they can do their bit: “They love having something to read, so we end up recycling all our newspapers and the Worcester News gets sent out as well if we’ve got a copy to send.

“We sent them conkers and they were over the moon about that.”

Each box has a note saying where the parcel has come from and asking for the soldiers to send details back so they can also receive parcels.

A soldier writes: “Many thanks for the volleyball – we had just lost our American football over the base perimeter wall.

“None of my guys know the Pashtun for ‘can I have my ball back please mister? so we were snookered.

“We got back late from a mission, then found out we were out early the next day on another.

“So we broke out your biscuits and got stuck in!”

A sapper from an engineering unit writes: “Our top three things are newspapers, biscuits and shower gel.”

They go on to describe their work: “We improve the bases in Helmand, run electricity cable, install toilets, and we’ve blown treelines that the Taliban are using as firing points.” In every letter from the front is evidence of the British quality which runs through all servicemen and women – those “poor bloody infantry” – a strange mix of stiff upper lip and black humour.

A squadron sergeant major writes: “There’s nothing worse than seeing some of the lads not receive any letters at all.

“Sometimes it feels like the public aren’t that bothered, so both of you keep up the good work.

“Tell your postman ‘a big thankyou’ as well and tell him not to go on strike this Christmas – ha ha.”

And of course there is the odd glimpse of the true cost of conflict.

“We’ve been here four months,”

one soldier writes.

“So far three dead, 10 in hospital.

Thanks from all the lads for your parcels.”

With Armistice Day looming, there will again this year be more names to add to the roll of honour and the list of ‘Glorious Dead’.