Letter to Lewis Ellis from Gus Knox
Title
Letter to Lewis Ellis from Gus Knox
Description
Thanks him for his letter, the first he had had from him from England. Writes a bit about his flying activities. Comments on weather in the wet season. Says he might be back where he came from shortly. Writes that he had tried four times for a pilots course but was turned down. Comments on his family all being well. Notes he had been writing monthly to Lewis and addressed letters to his home.
Creator
Date
1944-02
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Four page handwritten letter
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
EKnoxATEllisEL4402XX-01
Transcription
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
[inserted] 44 [/inserted]
[postmark]
[postmark 20 [indecipherable number] 44]
SGT. E. L. ELLIS
GB 1238597 – R.A.F.V.R.
54 WULFRIC
SHEFFIELD 11.
YORKS.
ENGLAND. U.K.
[underlined] [indecipherable word]. T. Knox [/underlined]
[page break]
P/O A. T. KNOX
415535
[page break]
I.
P/O A. T. KNOX 415535
A.P.O. 366.
IWGN. – N. Z.
Dear Lew,
So glad to hear from you again, your letter written at Whitley Bay is the first I have had from you in England. The N.C.O. course sounds rather a bind and I dont envy you one bit. That was one thing I missed coming home to N. Z. We were Shipped off up here, and down to flying right away. My time now is over 450 hours on these A/C, and of that 406 hours are operational. We sure pile up the time these days and no let up on the work.
The general thing is a trip then two days off, but recently we have flown every other day.
The weather is a curse just now as it is the wet season and the met. man has his work cut out chasing fronts, and tropic Storms. The cold is one condition that does not trouble
[page break]
us, in fact the very reverse is the case, too much heat.
There is a possibility that I’ll be back where I came from very shortly and I dont mean N. Z. I dont know whether I’ll get far enough North to see all the old friends or not but when I do get there I will drop you a note and the post mark will let you know a bit more than I care to write.
I have tried four times now for my pilots course, but got turned down each time, they spun a great yarn about how short they were of WOP/AG’s, especially on these planes, so I will have to bide my time, as I think later on as our squadron builds up I will have a better show.
The family are all keeping in the pink, and I will let you into a secret, I think we are going to have an addition, in the very near future, if it is
[page break]
III
a boy the wife is going to call it Lewis, so there you are. She is very keen on the name, I think your photo must have influenced her. It is just as well you’r so far away or I might start getting jealous. She sends you her very best wishes, and so do Mam & Dad.
You say you have only received three airgraphs from me, well since leaving Paulson, I have written you almost every month. The last six months definetly, so it must be on the way somewhere. I addressed it all to your home to make sure that it did not go chasing you around Canada. By the time this reaches you I hope it has all arrived. I enclosed in several letters, stamps of N. Z. and of some of the islands I have visited, also some snapshots, taken at home while on leave. Here’s hoping they turn up soon.
My New Year was not so
[page break]
IV
pleasant as you hoped, and likened to my last in the Fort Garry, but being home as you were I guess it was just all right, seeing the old country after two years away. I have only had one airgraph from Tony since he arrived in England, he seems to be doing O.K. and I am glad to hear that George is getting thru his ops. all right.
I am keeping reasonably fit these days, although the soft life at Paulson sure did not do me any good. I must close now and hope to hear from you again soon.
Regards to all at home including “Siddley”, and very best to yourself.
Yours
Gus
[inserted] 44 [/inserted]
[postmark]
[postmark 20 [indecipherable number] 44]
SGT. E. L. ELLIS
GB 1238597 – R.A.F.V.R.
54 WULFRIC
SHEFFIELD 11.
YORKS.
ENGLAND. U.K.
[underlined] [indecipherable word]. T. Knox [/underlined]
[page break]
P/O A. T. KNOX
415535
[page break]
I.
P/O A. T. KNOX 415535
A.P.O. 366.
IWGN. – N. Z.
Dear Lew,
So glad to hear from you again, your letter written at Whitley Bay is the first I have had from you in England. The N.C.O. course sounds rather a bind and I dont envy you one bit. That was one thing I missed coming home to N. Z. We were Shipped off up here, and down to flying right away. My time now is over 450 hours on these A/C, and of that 406 hours are operational. We sure pile up the time these days and no let up on the work.
The general thing is a trip then two days off, but recently we have flown every other day.
The weather is a curse just now as it is the wet season and the met. man has his work cut out chasing fronts, and tropic Storms. The cold is one condition that does not trouble
[page break]
us, in fact the very reverse is the case, too much heat.
There is a possibility that I’ll be back where I came from very shortly and I dont mean N. Z. I dont know whether I’ll get far enough North to see all the old friends or not but when I do get there I will drop you a note and the post mark will let you know a bit more than I care to write.
I have tried four times now for my pilots course, but got turned down each time, they spun a great yarn about how short they were of WOP/AG’s, especially on these planes, so I will have to bide my time, as I think later on as our squadron builds up I will have a better show.
The family are all keeping in the pink, and I will let you into a secret, I think we are going to have an addition, in the very near future, if it is
[page break]
III
a boy the wife is going to call it Lewis, so there you are. She is very keen on the name, I think your photo must have influenced her. It is just as well you’r so far away or I might start getting jealous. She sends you her very best wishes, and so do Mam & Dad.
You say you have only received three airgraphs from me, well since leaving Paulson, I have written you almost every month. The last six months definetly, so it must be on the way somewhere. I addressed it all to your home to make sure that it did not go chasing you around Canada. By the time this reaches you I hope it has all arrived. I enclosed in several letters, stamps of N. Z. and of some of the islands I have visited, also some snapshots, taken at home while on leave. Here’s hoping they turn up soon.
My New Year was not so
[page break]
IV
pleasant as you hoped, and likened to my last in the Fort Garry, but being home as you were I guess it was just all right, seeing the old country after two years away. I have only had one airgraph from Tony since he arrived in England, he seems to be doing O.K. and I am glad to hear that George is getting thru his ops. all right.
I am keeping reasonably fit these days, although the soft life at Paulson sure did not do me any good. I must close now and hope to hear from you again soon.
Regards to all at home including “Siddley”, and very best to yourself.
Yours
Gus
Collection
Citation
G Knox, “Letter to Lewis Ellis from Gus Knox,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 11, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/43172.