Unknown Soldier, Peepal Tree Press by  Seni Seneviratne

Author’s introduction

Unknown Soldier is my book of poetry born out of silences that became an elegy for my late father and a monument for the things unspoken between us.  At its heart is an album of photos – the only surviving record of a friendship between two signalmen.  Referred to in the book by their nicknames Snowball and Shorty.  One of whom - the subject - was my father, a young man from colonial Ceylon who served as a radio operator in the Royal Signals Corps in the North African desert war.  The other is an unknown photographer whose voice I set out to discover in the writing of this book. I let the photos speak and tell me their story.  

I found the voice of my 24-year-old father and as the photographer’s voice took shape the more I saw my father through his gaze. And, the more likely it seemed that there was a story of unrequited love, reflected in the way the photographer frames my father. I discovered a story of two men finding a connection through mutual support and respect and a love of photography.  A book born out of silences unearthed another silence.  An unspoken experience of many gay men during the second world war.  It also tells the story of my father’s return from the war, his marriage to a Yorkshire woman and our family life in Leeds.