Letters written to each other by two gay WWII soldiers have inspired a new exhibition that proves “love never changes” through the ages.

Gilbert Bradley and Gordon Bowsher’s love letters were written during the devastating 1939-45 conflict, when same-sex activity was still illegal in the UK. On display at Oswestry Town Museum, in Shropshire, the missives were not discovered until after Bradley’s death in 2008.

“My darling, I lie awake all night waiting for the postman in the early morning, and when he does not bring anything from you I just exist, a mass of nerves,” Bowsher wrote in one letter.

Inspired by the letters, artist Megan Hayward and poet Emmy Clarke collected “local love stories from across the decades”, and turned them into an exhibition for the arts programme ART-efact Oswestry.

“We were both given the opportunity to see the letters in person,” Hayward told PinkNews. “I was blown away by the writing, I think these days it’s easy to forget how instant our communication is and [how] quickly love moves, but the letters were a reminder of what it must be like to be in love with someone you can’t speak to every day.

“They’re the most beautiful declarations of love, of hope for what their lives might be like together one day, and just remarkable that behind the privacy of pen and paper, they were able to express themselves so freely.”