Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He is waiting to start his training but he is not sure when or where. Local and camp food is good. He says the beer is awful and weak. Shopping is good and he asks Jean if she needs anything. They have two cinemas with frequent change of current films. He likes the cold, dry weather and has bought a camera.
Creator
Date
1943-03-09
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430308
Transcription
[inserted] 9-3-43 [/inserted]
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss Welland,
7. Queens Drive,
Surbiton
Surrey.
ENGLAND
[inserted] NEW BRUNSWICK – NR HALIFAX CANADA [/inserted]
[page break]
927893. L.A.C. Darby
31. P D. 12G. RAF.
Moncton N.B.
Canada
8/3/43
Dear Jean,
Expect you have received my airgraph by now, thought I better confine any rude remarks to a letter.
From all accounts we shall be here about 3 to four weeks awaiting vacancies at B & G.S., at the moment we have no indication as to [deleted] are [/deleted] our destination, it may be is the United States, even as far south as Florida! Or as far north as Yukon, plenty of excitement as to where you will end up.
Now we have been here nearly a week we are getting used
[page break]
2/
to Canadian money, its funny we work it out in English money automaticly [sic], on the whole cost of living is higher over here, the only exceptions are food if you eat out, a good square meal of two eggs, ham, chips, bread & butter and tea costs about 1/7 – 2/- but unless we go out of camp for the afternoon its not usually worth feeding out as there’s ample rations in camp. The canteens are simply wizard, furnished very well and the lounges are like those of a very modern hotel. Of course there are no ‘locals’ here (much to our disgust) beer is practically non-existent and what can be obtained is very dear and simply terrible, why even water is stronger.
[page break]
3/
We had a look round the local “Bentalls” last Saturday, quite a good variety of stuff, some, things that I had forgotten existed, by the way is there anything you would like? let me know and I’ll see what can be found.
As regards entertainments, we are are [sic] very fortunate, two cinemas in camp, both as up-to-date as the Odeon but of course not so large, one is free, the other costs [deleted letter] 15c (1/- to any part of the house). They change the programme every two days and occasionally there are concerts. In addition they have whist, bridge, chess competitions for prizes.
Moncton which is 10 minutes walk from the camp has three cinemas and is well supplied with
[page break]
4/
canteens, in all of which food is cheap and various lounges and games rooms can be found. Moncton is a typical Canadian town, just two streets of shops and that’s all, the whole place is untidy and seems so different from the average neatness of an English town. The people are mostly French-Canadians and rather reserved, but after you have been talking to them a little while they soon thaw, think they must be rather fed up with airmen crowding them out of everywhere.
When you write, tell me all the news, suppose you are still causing Eastwoods grief and worry, did you go to the firms dance after all? and what about the choral society? does it still exist?
[page break]
5/
You would like the weather over here, nice and fresh but very cold, its been a nice sunny day and this afternoon we did a two hour route march, the temperature was about +25°F. that’s 7° frost but it seemed quite mild owing to the dryness of the air. theres bags of skating although I haven’t tried it yet, the chief difficulty is to get skates.
As I have brought my camera shall be able to send some snaps home, there should be plenty of subjects to take.
Well, think thats all at the moment, take care of yourself and don’t overstrain that voice of yours (singing)??
Cheerio,
Yours Jack
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss Welland,
7. Queens Drive,
Surbiton
Surrey.
ENGLAND
[inserted] NEW BRUNSWICK – NR HALIFAX CANADA [/inserted]
[page break]
927893. L.A.C. Darby
31. P D. 12G. RAF.
Moncton N.B.
Canada
8/3/43
Dear Jean,
Expect you have received my airgraph by now, thought I better confine any rude remarks to a letter.
From all accounts we shall be here about 3 to four weeks awaiting vacancies at B & G.S., at the moment we have no indication as to [deleted] are [/deleted] our destination, it may be is the United States, even as far south as Florida! Or as far north as Yukon, plenty of excitement as to where you will end up.
Now we have been here nearly a week we are getting used
[page break]
2/
to Canadian money, its funny we work it out in English money automaticly [sic], on the whole cost of living is higher over here, the only exceptions are food if you eat out, a good square meal of two eggs, ham, chips, bread & butter and tea costs about 1/7 – 2/- but unless we go out of camp for the afternoon its not usually worth feeding out as there’s ample rations in camp. The canteens are simply wizard, furnished very well and the lounges are like those of a very modern hotel. Of course there are no ‘locals’ here (much to our disgust) beer is practically non-existent and what can be obtained is very dear and simply terrible, why even water is stronger.
[page break]
3/
We had a look round the local “Bentalls” last Saturday, quite a good variety of stuff, some, things that I had forgotten existed, by the way is there anything you would like? let me know and I’ll see what can be found.
As regards entertainments, we are are [sic] very fortunate, two cinemas in camp, both as up-to-date as the Odeon but of course not so large, one is free, the other costs [deleted letter] 15c (1/- to any part of the house). They change the programme every two days and occasionally there are concerts. In addition they have whist, bridge, chess competitions for prizes.
Moncton which is 10 minutes walk from the camp has three cinemas and is well supplied with
[page break]
4/
canteens, in all of which food is cheap and various lounges and games rooms can be found. Moncton is a typical Canadian town, just two streets of shops and that’s all, the whole place is untidy and seems so different from the average neatness of an English town. The people are mostly French-Canadians and rather reserved, but after you have been talking to them a little while they soon thaw, think they must be rather fed up with airmen crowding them out of everywhere.
When you write, tell me all the news, suppose you are still causing Eastwoods grief and worry, did you go to the firms dance after all? and what about the choral society? does it still exist?
[page break]
5/
You would like the weather over here, nice and fresh but very cold, its been a nice sunny day and this afternoon we did a two hour route march, the temperature was about +25°F. that’s 7° frost but it seemed quite mild owing to the dryness of the air. theres bags of skating although I haven’t tried it yet, the chief difficulty is to get skates.
As I have brought my camera shall be able to send some snaps home, there should be plenty of subjects to take.
Well, think thats all at the moment, take care of yourself and don’t overstrain that voice of yours (singing)??
Cheerio,
Yours Jack
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 16, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/39892.