Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents
Description
Acknowledges receipt of letters. Hopes they are settling in new house.Talks of chocolate, red cross and their status as prisoners of war in Tunisia. Notes price of cigarettes is much cheaper in Algeria that in England. Says he is expecting to go to Algiers in a couple of days and hope to buy clothes.
Creator
Date
1941-05-25
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)410525-010001, EHudsonJDHudson(Fam)410525-010002
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. Chef. J. D. Hudson.
Camp de Liberté Surveillé
Hotel d’Orient.
MÉDÉA. Algerie
Afrique du Nord. 25-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Since I wrote my last letter on Thursday, no Wed, my birthday, I have received two Air Mail letters from you dated April 25th & 29th. In my last letters I acknowledged receipt of your telegrams also a telegram each from Uncle Jim & Uncle Walter & Auntie Una. I also sent you a short cable which I expect you will have received. Well by now I expect you will be settled in your new home, which according to the description you give in your letter does not sound too bad. Especially when you can see distances of 40 miles on clear days. I hope you will both be happy there, and I think you may find the people pleasanter in that district. You give a list of the letters & post cards you received from me up to January 17th & I gather that practically all my mail reached you. I wrote letters every two weeks except for one miss in December, the reason for which you will hear one of these days. After Jan 17th I missed several post card days, simply for lack of plain post cards, but continued writing letters. Since I have been here, that is since April 24th, I have written about two letters to you each week, & have sent these by Air Mail. I now have to stamp letters myself & accordingly cannot afford to write to other people. I hope you will start receiving a more regular mail from
[page break]
me now. I notice what you say about chocolate & on that account I ask you not to worry. The remarks the Red X. directed to you concerning the despatch of chocolate are doubtless correct, but their other remarks about our not being regarded as P of Ws. in Tunisia – well – one of these days. Our position here is somewhat different, but I like the truth about the past. Cigarettes are dear in England. Here, on the contrary, they are ridiculously cheap, from 1 franc 60 centimes upwards, ie from about 2d to about 1/-. The dearer ones are rubbish, a sort of attempted Virginia, but the cheap ones are all right. I smoke cigarettes costing about 2 1/2d for 20. We smoke a terrific amount out here easily 20 per day – what will happen back in England – I don’t know. Hope Dad can get interested in the pipe. I hope also he will not get too tired with this night “stunt” The more I think, the more I – well you know. Tomorrow, I expect to go to Algiers for 2 days to get a little clothing. Have got to wear something & am getting low. Havent [sic] bought anything since I landed here, but have relied on the kindliness of sympathisers in Tunis, people I shall always remember. Well I am still keeping well, but growing more impatient as the days go by. Wish I could be where I was 12 months ago. Will say good-bye now until next letter. Hoping that everything will be better in the days to come, & that you will keep safe & well. I am always thinking about you.
All my love & best wishes.
[underlined] Douglas [/underlined]
Camp de Liberté Surveillé
Hotel d’Orient.
MÉDÉA. Algerie
Afrique du Nord. 25-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Since I wrote my last letter on Thursday, no Wed, my birthday, I have received two Air Mail letters from you dated April 25th & 29th. In my last letters I acknowledged receipt of your telegrams also a telegram each from Uncle Jim & Uncle Walter & Auntie Una. I also sent you a short cable which I expect you will have received. Well by now I expect you will be settled in your new home, which according to the description you give in your letter does not sound too bad. Especially when you can see distances of 40 miles on clear days. I hope you will both be happy there, and I think you may find the people pleasanter in that district. You give a list of the letters & post cards you received from me up to January 17th & I gather that practically all my mail reached you. I wrote letters every two weeks except for one miss in December, the reason for which you will hear one of these days. After Jan 17th I missed several post card days, simply for lack of plain post cards, but continued writing letters. Since I have been here, that is since April 24th, I have written about two letters to you each week, & have sent these by Air Mail. I now have to stamp letters myself & accordingly cannot afford to write to other people. I hope you will start receiving a more regular mail from
[page break]
me now. I notice what you say about chocolate & on that account I ask you not to worry. The remarks the Red X. directed to you concerning the despatch of chocolate are doubtless correct, but their other remarks about our not being regarded as P of Ws. in Tunisia – well – one of these days. Our position here is somewhat different, but I like the truth about the past. Cigarettes are dear in England. Here, on the contrary, they are ridiculously cheap, from 1 franc 60 centimes upwards, ie from about 2d to about 1/-. The dearer ones are rubbish, a sort of attempted Virginia, but the cheap ones are all right. I smoke cigarettes costing about 2 1/2d for 20. We smoke a terrific amount out here easily 20 per day – what will happen back in England – I don’t know. Hope Dad can get interested in the pipe. I hope also he will not get too tired with this night “stunt” The more I think, the more I – well you know. Tomorrow, I expect to go to Algiers for 2 days to get a little clothing. Have got to wear something & am getting low. Havent [sic] bought anything since I landed here, but have relied on the kindliness of sympathisers in Tunis, people I shall always remember. Well I am still keeping well, but growing more impatient as the days go by. Wish I could be where I was 12 months ago. Will say good-bye now until next letter. Hoping that everything will be better in the days to come, & that you will keep safe & well. I am always thinking about you.
All my love & best wishes.
[underlined] Douglas [/underlined]
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson in Médéa to parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/10885.
Item Relations
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