Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He thanks he for her letter and a cake. He explains the RAF's system of pay for married men. He discusses their wedding arrangements.
Creator
Date
1945-05-19
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Four double sided handwritten sheets and envelope (both sides)
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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ450519
Transcription
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss J. Welland,
7. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[inserted] 19 5 45 [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 21
19 [/inserted]
[page break]
F/o. C. Darby, 154676.
R.A.F. Station
Stradishall
Newmarket
Suffolk.
Saturday.
My darling Jean,
Thanks so much for your letter received this morning, you have asked quite a few questions so I will answer these to start with.
Regarding the photos I took one, Jack the other and I believe Pete was somewhere around, Thanks for the gen about the film. I received the cake O.K.
[page break]
2/
on Thursday, has been half demolished by now, can tell you it goes down well last thing at night, I have to keep it well away from Jack otherwise he'd eat the lot.
There are quite big changes going on here at the moment, the P.O.W. trips are practically finished, they dont count as trips and we're not considered tour experienced, so we are on the squadron awaiting future developments. The station is reverting to peace time and that means bags of parades etc, the A.O.C. of the Group is visiting us
[page break]
3/
on an official inspection and you have to be in the service to realize the panic that entails. Also we start a training programme tomorrow, lectures, organized games flying etc, like a ruddy O.T.U. again, another thing there's bright ideas of altering the leave but I've ignored them, and booked up at Lynton with Birty Tracy and Bideford as alternative choices as things are really booked up. I've given the dates as 26th to 31st as I shall have to be back at camp on 31st, later on
[page break]
4/
I'll go and see the C/O and arrange things.
Am glad you are slowly collecting the bits and pieces for the kitchen, hope Mr Bristow can get the others. As to the demob plan, well it will probably be some time before I get out, at least nine months as the scheme works slightly differently, we are highly trained personnel and releases will probably be small from aircrew as the war in the Pacific will be mainly sea & air, however we shall have to wait and see
[page break]
5/
there has been a case of an officer here, age 35, married with wife expecting a baby being posted to India, so it shows you get no consideration from Air Ministry.
As you can see, if you can leave Eastwoods you could safely get another job for six or nine months if you wanted to, if you are cheesed with the place you can walk out and even take a job at less money, you'll have the married allowance from the R.A.F. or even work part-time. Don't think I'm mean but if you do work up
[page break]
6/
until the time I'm demobilised, we shall have that extra money saved for the home, what do you think of these ideas?
We seem to be getting no-where regarding a place to eat after the wedding, think we better have a picnic on the common. The Toby Jug is quite a nice spot, as long as we can get some cars we can transport the guests, it looks as though a very quiet wedding would solve a bit of difficulties though. It's the shortage of everything at the moment that causes all the trouble, better get married now and
[page break]
7/
have the reception in two years time, then the guests will be able to give us a better selection of presents! Perhaps you will be able to make some enquiries and we'll try and sort it out on leave.
Well darling I think I've answered all the odds and ends, am looking forward very much to seeing you a fortnight today.
All my love, dear, take care of yourself
Yours
Jack
Miss J. Welland,
7. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey
[inserted] 19 5 45 [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 21
19 [/inserted]
[page break]
F/o. C. Darby, 154676.
R.A.F. Station
Stradishall
Newmarket
Suffolk.
Saturday.
My darling Jean,
Thanks so much for your letter received this morning, you have asked quite a few questions so I will answer these to start with.
Regarding the photos I took one, Jack the other and I believe Pete was somewhere around, Thanks for the gen about the film. I received the cake O.K.
[page break]
2/
on Thursday, has been half demolished by now, can tell you it goes down well last thing at night, I have to keep it well away from Jack otherwise he'd eat the lot.
There are quite big changes going on here at the moment, the P.O.W. trips are practically finished, they dont count as trips and we're not considered tour experienced, so we are on the squadron awaiting future developments. The station is reverting to peace time and that means bags of parades etc, the A.O.C. of the Group is visiting us
[page break]
3/
on an official inspection and you have to be in the service to realize the panic that entails. Also we start a training programme tomorrow, lectures, organized games flying etc, like a ruddy O.T.U. again, another thing there's bright ideas of altering the leave but I've ignored them, and booked up at Lynton with Birty Tracy and Bideford as alternative choices as things are really booked up. I've given the dates as 26th to 31st as I shall have to be back at camp on 31st, later on
[page break]
4/
I'll go and see the C/O and arrange things.
Am glad you are slowly collecting the bits and pieces for the kitchen, hope Mr Bristow can get the others. As to the demob plan, well it will probably be some time before I get out, at least nine months as the scheme works slightly differently, we are highly trained personnel and releases will probably be small from aircrew as the war in the Pacific will be mainly sea & air, however we shall have to wait and see
[page break]
5/
there has been a case of an officer here, age 35, married with wife expecting a baby being posted to India, so it shows you get no consideration from Air Ministry.
As you can see, if you can leave Eastwoods you could safely get another job for six or nine months if you wanted to, if you are cheesed with the place you can walk out and even take a job at less money, you'll have the married allowance from the R.A.F. or even work part-time. Don't think I'm mean but if you do work up
[page break]
6/
until the time I'm demobilised, we shall have that extra money saved for the home, what do you think of these ideas?
We seem to be getting no-where regarding a place to eat after the wedding, think we better have a picnic on the common. The Toby Jug is quite a nice spot, as long as we can get some cars we can transport the guests, it looks as though a very quiet wedding would solve a bit of difficulties though. It's the shortage of everything at the moment that causes all the trouble, better get married now and
[page break]
7/
have the reception in two years time, then the guests will be able to give us a better selection of presents! Perhaps you will be able to make some enquiries and we'll try and sort it out on leave.
Well darling I think I've answered all the odds and ends, am looking forward very much to seeing you a fortnight today.
All my love, dear, 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/40144.