Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby

Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby

He thanks her for her letters and makes several cheeky comments. He passed his exams and they have had a graduation dinner. His visit to his sister has been granted.

1943-12-07

One double sided handwritten air letter

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

EDarbyCAHWellandJ431207-0001, EDarbyCAHWellandJ431207-0002

No.51. 7.12:43

Dear Jean,

Thanks so much for letters 38.39.40. which arrived within a few days from each other from Lethbridge, having three successive shocks in so short a time is no good for my nerves, am beginning to believe the report in the newspaper about serious shortage of airletters in S.W. London, any connection?

I notice you put your favourite pastime of sleeping first on the list of vital news, can imagine Miss Welland nipping rapidly along the road, staggering in the door of Eastwoods and with her last ounce of strength clocking on at [underlined] 08.44 59 3/4 [/underlined] boy, what a sight, what news, what speed.

Well, after those few opening remarks, heres some news, of my doings this past week. We've finished exams and today received the results. I didnt do so bad, averaged 86.3% for all subjects, of course the exam papers were fairly easy, just happened to know what they asked, better be born lucky than rich!

Last night the graduation dinner was held at the local banquet hall, was a pretty good show, of course all the officers from the C.O. downwards were present, the usual speeches made telling everyone what great fellows they were, plenty of drink removed to safe quarters, in fact a good time was had by all. After the dinner we had a dance, we collected enough girls to go round from the civilian staff of the airport, the band was really good, and the boys really went to town, even I had the jitterbug craze in a subdued kind of way.

[page break]

Friday, bags of leave!

So sorry to hear about Roger, Mother had’nt mentioned it, can you give me any more gen about it?

Well, cheerio, for the moment, take care of yourself, dont overwork or do anything silly like getting to work early.

All the best

Yours Jack.

[page break]

AIR LETTER TO ARMED FORCES [postmark] [inserted] 7.12.43 [/inserted] [postage stamp]
BY AIRMAIL
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED, THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.

[deleted] Number, Rank or Rating and Name [/deleted] MISS J. WELLAND

[deleted] Unit (Company, Battery, Ship, Squadron, Etc.) [/deleted] 7. QUEENS DRIVE

[deleted] Regiment, Branch, Establishment or Station [/deleted] SURBITON

Service SURREY, ENGLAND

OVERSEAS.

FROM (Sender's full name and address)

[deleted] M [/deleted] 927893. Sgt Darby
[symbol] 2 A.O.S.
Edmonton Alberta

[inserted] 51 [/inserted]

[page break]

2/

I believe I mentioned I have tried to organize some leave in New York, well, my compassionate leave to visit my sister worked and 10 days have been granted, it will take 72 hours continuous travelling to get there, but its worth it, if I'm lucky should cross Niagara Falls in daylight so will see these as well.

Well, not much more to write about, roll on