Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He describes his journey back to Filey. His camp is very bleak, they are staying in concrete chalets. He gets a lot of marches, drill and marching. Food is not great but they have been on a pub crawl.
Creator
Date
1944-03-03
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Two 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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ440303
Transcription
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss Welland,
7, Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[inserted] [circled 1] 3.3.44
[circled 2] 12.3.44
[circled 3] 16.3.44
[page break]
P/O. Darby 154676.
No 2. Officers Mess
R.A.F. Filey Camp,
Filey,
Yorks.
3.3.44.
Dear Jean,
Well, heres a few lines to let you know I'm still a source of trouble to you.
I left Kings Cross at 10 am on Wednesday, after a very comfortable journey I changed at York and arrived here at 4.30 pm.
Perhaps a description of this place may interest you, after breakfast in bed and nice warm rooms at home this is really bleak. We are housed in concrete chalets, right in the most exposed part of the camp, theres no heating, just one bed and a chair, the wind which has’nt stopped
[page break]
2/
blowing at gale force since we arrived its deadly, whistles through all the cracks and gaps. The dining hall and lounge are enormous buildings, with a minimum of heating, in fact its a shaky do all round.
They've issued us with khaki denims, gaters and huge army boots, they nearly weigh a ton and I'm alright once I get the boots moving, I follow after although its dangerous going down hills. Today we went for just a short march, that's according to our instructor, only 8 miles, but we hope to do about 20 before long.
In addition to this commando effort we do plenty of gravel crushing – drill – and a series of admin lectures round off the programme, P.T. of course is
[page break]
3/
included, can tell you they treat us just like A.C.2's, still we get quite a few laughs, theres plenty of unrehearsed incidents and all my pals are here. I think I've met dozens of chaps since arriving here, they have been all over the place and we sit and talk for hours.
Last night we went on a pub crawl round the local village, it has five pubs and we judged them in order of merit, the one with the best beer and biggest fire gets our custom, the only drawback its 30 minutes walk from the camp. As regards food, well I've had better in an airmens mess.
After all these moans I will
[page break]
4.
switch on to something much more interesting – yourself, how are things going? had any more raids? Hope you've not been torn off a strip for being out alone during raids. You know you must look after yourself. We've got lots to do when I get some more leave, no time for being sick.
By the way, how about the socks, hope you've finished one by now and have’nt decided to convert it into a hot water bottle cover or a handle bar warmer for Agnes. (that'll cause it)
Well, must say cheerio, will be writing again soon, give my kind regards to Mother and Father.
All the best
Yours Jack.
Miss Welland,
7, Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[inserted] [circled 1] 3.3.44
[circled 2] 12.3.44
[circled 3] 16.3.44
[page break]
P/O. Darby 154676.
No 2. Officers Mess
R.A.F. Filey Camp,
Filey,
Yorks.
3.3.44.
Dear Jean,
Well, heres a few lines to let you know I'm still a source of trouble to you.
I left Kings Cross at 10 am on Wednesday, after a very comfortable journey I changed at York and arrived here at 4.30 pm.
Perhaps a description of this place may interest you, after breakfast in bed and nice warm rooms at home this is really bleak. We are housed in concrete chalets, right in the most exposed part of the camp, theres no heating, just one bed and a chair, the wind which has’nt stopped
[page break]
2/
blowing at gale force since we arrived its deadly, whistles through all the cracks and gaps. The dining hall and lounge are enormous buildings, with a minimum of heating, in fact its a shaky do all round.
They've issued us with khaki denims, gaters and huge army boots, they nearly weigh a ton and I'm alright once I get the boots moving, I follow after although its dangerous going down hills. Today we went for just a short march, that's according to our instructor, only 8 miles, but we hope to do about 20 before long.
In addition to this commando effort we do plenty of gravel crushing – drill – and a series of admin lectures round off the programme, P.T. of course is
[page break]
3/
included, can tell you they treat us just like A.C.2's, still we get quite a few laughs, theres plenty of unrehearsed incidents and all my pals are here. I think I've met dozens of chaps since arriving here, they have been all over the place and we sit and talk for hours.
Last night we went on a pub crawl round the local village, it has five pubs and we judged them in order of merit, the one with the best beer and biggest fire gets our custom, the only drawback its 30 minutes walk from the camp. As regards food, well I've had better in an airmens mess.
After all these moans I will
[page break]
4.
switch on to something much more interesting – yourself, how are things going? had any more raids? Hope you've not been torn off a strip for being out alone during raids. You know you must look after yourself. We've got lots to do when I get some more leave, no time for being sick.
By the way, how about the socks, hope you've finished one by now and have’nt decided to convert it into a hot water bottle cover or a handle bar warmer for Agnes. (that'll cause it)
Well, must say cheerio, will be writing again soon, give my kind regards to Mother and Father.
All the best
Yours Jack.
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 22, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/40063.