Letter from Laurence McNamara to Peggy
Title
Letter from Laurence McNamara to Peggy
Description
Thanks for letters received. Writes of family health matters and catches up with news and gossip. Complains about the weather since arriving in England from Southern Rhodesia. Not yet posted to a squadron. Mentions journey home.
Creator
Date
1941-10-29
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Three 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
EMcNamaraLGLMcNamaraP411029
Transcription
The Glen,
Dry Hill Park Rd,
Tonbridge,
Kent.
29th Oct, 1941
My dear Peggy,
Just a few lines to thank you on Mothers behalf for your two letters received here within the last few days.
Poor old Mother has been rather ill with Bronchial Pheumonia [sic]. I arrived here last Thursday to find Mother very ill. She was moved into Hospital the following morning and in the few days following, it was touch & go. In the last two days, however, she has shown a remarkable improvement and the odds are in her favour for being up and about in a few weeks time. She is too weak to write however and asked me to drop you a line and let you know the reason. Dad is quite fit although a bit Rheumatic(y) in this damp
[page break]
2/
weather. Bernard is remarkably fit, all things considered. They were all very amused with the Photograph of Vernon doing the Jitter-bug to the accompaniment of precarious voices.
I am so sorry I could not get up to Umtali to say chin-chin to you & Vernon and am rather pleased that anticipating such a situation, I went up to your place after Wings Exam.
It is certainly good to see all the old surroundings once again but I do wish we could enjoy a bit of sunshine. Ever since I landed in England about a fort-night [sic] or so ago it has been wretchedly cold and damp. I am beginning to think that Rhodesia is not [underlined] too [/underlined] bad after all.
So far I have not been posted to a Squadron and am spending 14 days leave in Tonbridge. Heavans [sic] knows when I am going to start flying again. If I don’t, soon, I shall have forgotten everything I ever learned.
Just before I left Bulawayo, I heard from Mrs Going of Kirkwall Hotel that
[page break]
3/
your sister Kathleen had left for England with Fred, and I expected to come a[deleted]c[/deleted]cross them among the passengers travelling home in our convoy. I did not see them however, so gathered that they must have left with the convoy ahead of us.
I had an interesting journey home sailing from Cape Town in [sic] the HM.T. Renia del Pacifico. We made Halifax, Nova Scotia in 17 days and stayed there for about 16 days at the end of which time we transferred to the H.M.T. Andes in which boat we completed the journey.
Well Peggy, as this letter should reach you just in time for Christmas, please accept the whole “Darn” family’s best wishes to yourself & Vernon for Christmas & the New Year.
Fondest love from Mother, Dad, Bernard & myself to you both.
Lawrence
Dry Hill Park Rd,
Tonbridge,
Kent.
29th Oct, 1941
My dear Peggy,
Just a few lines to thank you on Mothers behalf for your two letters received here within the last few days.
Poor old Mother has been rather ill with Bronchial Pheumonia [sic]. I arrived here last Thursday to find Mother very ill. She was moved into Hospital the following morning and in the few days following, it was touch & go. In the last two days, however, she has shown a remarkable improvement and the odds are in her favour for being up and about in a few weeks time. She is too weak to write however and asked me to drop you a line and let you know the reason. Dad is quite fit although a bit Rheumatic(y) in this damp
[page break]
2/
weather. Bernard is remarkably fit, all things considered. They were all very amused with the Photograph of Vernon doing the Jitter-bug to the accompaniment of precarious voices.
I am so sorry I could not get up to Umtali to say chin-chin to you & Vernon and am rather pleased that anticipating such a situation, I went up to your place after Wings Exam.
It is certainly good to see all the old surroundings once again but I do wish we could enjoy a bit of sunshine. Ever since I landed in England about a fort-night [sic] or so ago it has been wretchedly cold and damp. I am beginning to think that Rhodesia is not [underlined] too [/underlined] bad after all.
So far I have not been posted to a Squadron and am spending 14 days leave in Tonbridge. Heavans [sic] knows when I am going to start flying again. If I don’t, soon, I shall have forgotten everything I ever learned.
Just before I left Bulawayo, I heard from Mrs Going of Kirkwall Hotel that
[page break]
3/
your sister Kathleen had left for England with Fred, and I expected to come a[deleted]c[/deleted]cross them among the passengers travelling home in our convoy. I did not see them however, so gathered that they must have left with the convoy ahead of us.
I had an interesting journey home sailing from Cape Town in [sic] the HM.T. Renia del Pacifico. We made Halifax, Nova Scotia in 17 days and stayed there for about 16 days at the end of which time we transferred to the H.M.T. Andes in which boat we completed the journey.
Well Peggy, as this letter should reach you just in time for Christmas, please accept the whole “Darn” family’s best wishes to yourself & Vernon for Christmas & the New Year.
Fondest love from Mother, Dad, Bernard & myself to you both.
Lawrence
Collection
Citation
L G L McNamara, “Letter from Laurence McNamara to Peggy,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 16, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/43590.