Canada - Unopened WWII Armed Forces Air Letter

This item I picked up last spring has proven to be both a fascinating and sad piece of research



The recipient F/O Gordon Richter was shot down and killed over Leipzig on February 20 1944. Though there's no CDS on the stamp to indicate when it was sent from Brantford (the return address), markings indicate it was returned to Canada (Montreal Exchange Office) on October 26 of that year.
But a pencil notion on the lower left corner of the front gives a date of February 27, 1944, seven days after Richter was shot down. Don't know if that was a date sent or received in England. Either way, a week too late.

Since the ink of the letter is showing through the thin paper, I've reversed the image and adjusted it some to try to make out the date written at the top.





I know it's difficult to read with the stamp there, but when I hold the letter up to the light I can make out Brantford Feb 15/44
It does look like a 17 on the image, but under light, the top horizontal stroke comes out.
So I'm now thinking the pencil notion on the lower left is more probably an receiving date.

Fascinating. Thanks.

First they got notice that he had been killed and then got the letter back. Obviously someone's cherished reminder and treasure.

The letter took about 8 months to make the round trip.

James - any reason not to open it? Maybe a feeling of invasion of privacy?

BeeSee, ya, don't feel the need. Someone preserved this as is. It's not mine to open.

I agree with you James.

But would the family appreciate the information contained in the letter...?

Robet

They might Robert, if I knew them, or where they were. But I'm not family. I'm just the letters keeper at this point.

Let me follow up on my last posting. I guess BeeSee is correct in suggesting I see opening this letter as an invasion of privacy. I've been quiet happy in other threads to read enclosed letters and learn what I can of life 'way back when'. But those have already been enjoyed or experienced by the recipient and I guess I see them as 'available' to me as a researcher, trying to understand what I'm looking at.
In this case, this man has paid the ultimate sacrifice and I think, even in studying him in this way, I owe him this much.
Admittedly I wasn't surprised to find that F/O Richter had been killed, since the letter had been returned unopened. But if did sadden me when I first read it, and brings home that these items we collect and research were part of peoples private lives, and sometimes it's good to remember that.