Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents
Description
Writes of mail received and that he is happy they are now settled as constant moving made addressing letters to them difficult. Writes that he has been walking in local countryside and about the weather which is still quite cool as he has only just got back into shorts.
Creator
Date
1941-05-15
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two 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.
Identifier
EHudsonJDHudson(Fam)410515-010001, EHudsonJDHudson(Fam)410515-010002
Transcription
R.A.F. 755052. Sgt. Chef. J. D. Hudson.
Camp de Liberté Surveillé.
Hotel d’Orient.
Médéa. Algerie.
Afrique du Nord.
15-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I have not received any more letters from you since I last wrote three or four days ago. I then acknowledged receipt of four which arrived together dated Feb 23rd Mar. 2nd, April 11th & 14th, the last two came via Air Mail, which just shows the amount of time gained. I was also very pleased to receive your cable, in reply to mine, giving your change of address as well. I do hope that you will be settled now in your new home & that things will finally turn out to be much better. Writing to you now will make the fourth different address to which I have sent letters since March. The cable service is a very valuable link between England, I only wish I was able to afford to cable you regularly, but this is definitely a case of cutting the suit etc. I believe the Air Mail service from England to Alger [sic] is very good, people have already received letters in reply to their cable sent upon arrival here, namely in 2 weeks. I wish we had a speedier service to England, but I am hoping that these letters will be much quicker to you than those sent in the past from Kef. There is very little I can tell you, by necessity my style is cramped in all these letters, but I can continue to say that I hope you are keeping safe & well. I expect that summer will be
[page break]
on its way in England. It has been remarkably slow here, & not until yesterday did I get back into shorts. In the evenings it gets very cold, but yesterday was very pleasant not too warm & fortunately at this time of the year no flies. The last two or three days I have done a little walking & have been amazed to see so much on the mountain lanes resembling the English countryside. Hawthorn in bloom, blackberry bushes, wild roses, daisies buttercups etc, not to mention a host of other wild flowers very brightly coloured not to be found in England. Then of course there are the vines, figs, cherries etc. Have not seen any oranges or lemons here, but there were plenty en route from Tunis. This place is much richer agriculturally than Tunisia & we can get fresh milk here, because the cattle are well fed. Broad beans are figuring in the Arab market at ridiculous prices, about 1d a lb. & yet we never get them here. Probably too much trouble to shell. It is stupid. I wonder all this time how you are going on in England. You are not very far from Skipton & perhaps you will visit there occasionally, & renew some old acquaintances. There is no need for me to keep saying what I would give to be back in England. You cannot realise how tired we all are of this “isolation” & what we feel inside is indescribable. Who am I to talk of broad beans normally? Anyway, I suppose we cannot all be as lucky as Hess. What my outlook will be like when I get back - God knows. How but, I must say “au revoir” now. With all my best wishes for your future, & until the day when the Mediterranean is on the other side of me (an awkword [sic] strip of water that).
All my love
[underlined] Douglas [/underlined]
Camp de Liberté Surveillé.
Hotel d’Orient.
Médéa. Algerie.
Afrique du Nord.
15-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I have not received any more letters from you since I last wrote three or four days ago. I then acknowledged receipt of four which arrived together dated Feb 23rd Mar. 2nd, April 11th & 14th, the last two came via Air Mail, which just shows the amount of time gained. I was also very pleased to receive your cable, in reply to mine, giving your change of address as well. I do hope that you will be settled now in your new home & that things will finally turn out to be much better. Writing to you now will make the fourth different address to which I have sent letters since March. The cable service is a very valuable link between England, I only wish I was able to afford to cable you regularly, but this is definitely a case of cutting the suit etc. I believe the Air Mail service from England to Alger [sic] is very good, people have already received letters in reply to their cable sent upon arrival here, namely in 2 weeks. I wish we had a speedier service to England, but I am hoping that these letters will be much quicker to you than those sent in the past from Kef. There is very little I can tell you, by necessity my style is cramped in all these letters, but I can continue to say that I hope you are keeping safe & well. I expect that summer will be
[page break]
on its way in England. It has been remarkably slow here, & not until yesterday did I get back into shorts. In the evenings it gets very cold, but yesterday was very pleasant not too warm & fortunately at this time of the year no flies. The last two or three days I have done a little walking & have been amazed to see so much on the mountain lanes resembling the English countryside. Hawthorn in bloom, blackberry bushes, wild roses, daisies buttercups etc, not to mention a host of other wild flowers very brightly coloured not to be found in England. Then of course there are the vines, figs, cherries etc. Have not seen any oranges or lemons here, but there were plenty en route from Tunis. This place is much richer agriculturally than Tunisia & we can get fresh milk here, because the cattle are well fed. Broad beans are figuring in the Arab market at ridiculous prices, about 1d a lb. & yet we never get them here. Probably too much trouble to shell. It is stupid. I wonder all this time how you are going on in England. You are not very far from Skipton & perhaps you will visit there occasionally, & renew some old acquaintances. There is no need for me to keep saying what I would give to be back in England. You cannot realise how tired we all are of this “isolation” & what we feel inside is indescribable. Who am I to talk of broad beans normally? Anyway, I suppose we cannot all be as lucky as Hess. What my outlook will be like when I get back - God knows. How but, I must say “au revoir” now. With all my best wishes for your future, & until the day when the Mediterranean is on the other side of me (an awkword [sic] strip of water that).
All my love
[underlined] Douglas [/underlined]
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/10883.
Item Relations
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