Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He describes his return journey to camp. He has been flying with some cross-country, night bombing and fighter integration.
Creator
Date
1944-07-19
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two 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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ440719
Transcription
[postage stamp] [postmark]
[inserted] 19-7-44 [/inserted]
Miss J. Welland,
7 Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[page break]
F/O J. Darby. 154676.
Officers Mess.
R.A.F. Station
Upper Heyford
Oxford
19.7.44.
Dear Jean,
Just a few lines to let you know I arrived back in good time. I caught the 7.38 from Claygate and when we arrived at Waterloo there was an alert on, of course the Underground was closed but fortunately the All Clear went soon after so there was’nt much delay. I made Paddington about 8.35 and caught the 9.10 to Banbury, this
[page break]
2/
was’nt too crowded and the train arrived to time, in fact I went straight to Barford and had changed and was sitting in the mess at 11.30. We were flying in the afternoon, did our first cross country, everything went O.K. flew out over the North Sea part of the way, but of course saw nothing of interest.
Tonight we are night bombing, also fighter interception, hope it is fine as we can get up high and may have a good exercise.
Hope you arrived home in good time the other night, we
[page break]
3/
had two alerts apparently, Mother called me but I would have preferred to sleep on. I suppose now you are thinking of your first weeks holiday, hope you have a nice time, don’t do anything I would’nt do (this gives you bags of scope), perhaps the weather will improve a little. By the way, what shall we do on our holiday in August? have you any ideas? or are there any places you would like to visit. I expect this doodle bug effort will affect things a bit.
[page break]
4/
I expect you have noticed that my promotion has come through. I saw it in the London Gazette yesterday, shall have to get some ribbon to sew on my uniform.
Well, not much more to write about, will say cheerio for the moment, take care of yourself.
Yours
Jack
[inserted] 19-7-44 [/inserted]
Miss J. Welland,
7 Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[page break]
F/O J. Darby. 154676.
Officers Mess.
R.A.F. Station
Upper Heyford
Oxford
19.7.44.
Dear Jean,
Just a few lines to let you know I arrived back in good time. I caught the 7.38 from Claygate and when we arrived at Waterloo there was an alert on, of course the Underground was closed but fortunately the All Clear went soon after so there was’nt much delay. I made Paddington about 8.35 and caught the 9.10 to Banbury, this
[page break]
2/
was’nt too crowded and the train arrived to time, in fact I went straight to Barford and had changed and was sitting in the mess at 11.30. We were flying in the afternoon, did our first cross country, everything went O.K. flew out over the North Sea part of the way, but of course saw nothing of interest.
Tonight we are night bombing, also fighter interception, hope it is fine as we can get up high and may have a good exercise.
Hope you arrived home in good time the other night, we
[page break]
3/
had two alerts apparently, Mother called me but I would have preferred to sleep on. I suppose now you are thinking of your first weeks holiday, hope you have a nice time, don’t do anything I would’nt do (this gives you bags of scope), perhaps the weather will improve a little. By the way, what shall we do on our holiday in August? have you any ideas? or are there any places you would like to visit. I expect this doodle bug effort will affect things a bit.
[page break]
4/
I expect you have noticed that my promotion has come through. I saw it in the London Gazette yesterday, shall have to get some ribbon to sew on my uniform.
Well, not much more to write about, will say cheerio for the moment, take care of yourself.
Yours
Jack
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/40077.