Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Title
Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Description
He thanks he for the socks and her letter. He describes training at his camp.
Creator
Date
1944-03-16
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Three handwritten sheets
Publisher
Rights
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.
Contributor
Identifier
EDarbyCAHWellandJ440316-0001, EDarbyCAHWellandJ440316-0002, EDarbyCAHWellandJ440316-0003
Transcription
P/O. Darby. (154676).
No 2. Officers Mess,
R.A.F. Filey Camp,
Filey
Yorks
16.3.44
Dear Jean,
Thanks ever so much for the socks also letter which arrived yesterday, the former are wizard, fit O.K. and looked upon with a certain amount of envy by my two room mates. I, forsee [sic] two more males demanding socks from their lady friends.
Fancy you being busy at Eastwoods, hope by now you can return to your cards and knitting, must be a sudden strain to suddenly have to work!
At the moment we are just completing crushing all the gravel on the drill square, its a huge place, nearly
[page break]
2/
a [sic] big as the cricket ground at [indecipherable word], at other odd times we have lectures or admin, Manuel [sic] of Air Force Law and so on. This afternoon we spent chasing over the local golf course doing battle drill, that is taking bunkers by storm after sneaking up on them quietly to prevent them getting away, our party as usual tried to infiltrate towards the nineteenth hole but the movement was stopped by the combined efforts of one officer and three instructors, so we did’nt get our buns and tea.
Had you any excitement the other night? I see thirteen were destroyed but I hav’nt heard from home so don't know if your district was in the spot of bother.
I've had bad news in my last
[page break]
3/
letter, my Grandmother at Broadstairs slipped and fell down stairs, fractured her skull and was taken to hospital in a serious condition, naturally mother is very upset and I'm hoping to hear by this afternoon's post.
Did I tell you my lighter has vanished? someone has taken a liking to it, its a great pity as it was a Christmas present.
How did you enjoy 'Jane Eyre'? did the star get very wet? I do visit the local [underlined] occasionally, [/underlined] its funny they serve beer everywhere in these pubs, we had the best sitting room last time, you know, all in between the family photos, and souvenir china.
Well must close now, take care of yourself, please remember me to Mother & Dad, thanks again for the Socks.
Yours Jack
No 2. Officers Mess,
R.A.F. Filey Camp,
Filey
Yorks
16.3.44
Dear Jean,
Thanks ever so much for the socks also letter which arrived yesterday, the former are wizard, fit O.K. and looked upon with a certain amount of envy by my two room mates. I, forsee [sic] two more males demanding socks from their lady friends.
Fancy you being busy at Eastwoods, hope by now you can return to your cards and knitting, must be a sudden strain to suddenly have to work!
At the moment we are just completing crushing all the gravel on the drill square, its a huge place, nearly
[page break]
2/
a [sic] big as the cricket ground at [indecipherable word], at other odd times we have lectures or admin, Manuel [sic] of Air Force Law and so on. This afternoon we spent chasing over the local golf course doing battle drill, that is taking bunkers by storm after sneaking up on them quietly to prevent them getting away, our party as usual tried to infiltrate towards the nineteenth hole but the movement was stopped by the combined efforts of one officer and three instructors, so we did’nt get our buns and tea.
Had you any excitement the other night? I see thirteen were destroyed but I hav’nt heard from home so don't know if your district was in the spot of bother.
I've had bad news in my last
[page break]
3/
letter, my Grandmother at Broadstairs slipped and fell down stairs, fractured her skull and was taken to hospital in a serious condition, naturally mother is very upset and I'm hoping to hear by this afternoon's post.
Did I tell you my lighter has vanished? someone has taken a liking to it, its a great pity as it was a Christmas present.
How did you enjoy 'Jane Eyre'? did the star get very wet? I do visit the local [underlined] occasionally, [/underlined] its funny they serve beer everywhere in these pubs, we had the best sitting room last time, you know, all in between the family photos, and souvenir china.
Well must close now, take care of yourself, please remember me to Mother & Dad, thanks again for the Socks.
Yours Jack
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 10, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/39642.