Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents
Title
Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents
Description
Writes about laundry he is sending home, the fine weather, duties as wing spotter/fire piquet [sic], Continues about food, walking, local amenities, an overnight storm and starting navigation training.
Creator
Date
1941-06-30
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Five page handwritten letter and envelope
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
EMadgettLR-AGMadgettHR410630
Transcription
[postmark]
[postage stamp]
Mr. & Mrs. Madgett.
127. Longlands Road.
Sidcup.
[underlined] Kent [/underlined]
[page break]
[stamp]
[page break]
NO. 1330340. H.R. MADGETT.
No. 4 SQUADRON. No. 4 FLIGHT
No. 10 I.T.W. R.A.F.
Grand Hotel.
[underlined] Scarborough [/underlined]
[underlined] Saturday afternoon. [/underlined]
Dear Mum & Dad,
I have just sent on a clothes parcel, for the washing, but my swim trunks have not come yet. But still, the weather has cooled off a bit lately. Last week, in the boiling sun we had P.T. or games almost every day on the beach, & wished very much that I could go in.
Tomorrow night (Sunday) will be my [underlined] 4th [/underlined] night on duty this last week. The main reason is because another Flight is on leave. One night I slept in one of the four towers as a Wing Spotter. Thats [sic] not so bad as we are on the top floor and don’t have
[page break]
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
to move one’s bedding far. But two other nights, I had to sleep and bring the bedding down to the ground floor by the Guard Room, & take it back again up 133 stairs to our room [inserted] in the morning [/inserted] That was Wing Fire Piquet, and you have to do the black out on the ground floors and below. At 12.30 one night on this duty we had to get up, because the police were making a row about a light showing. No sooner had we got sufficienlty [sic] dressed than the light was discovered, and we had to [inserted] get [/inserted] back to bed again. Thank goodness the warning did not go, or we would have had to get up again & stand by the stirrup pumps.
But I suppose we have to take the rough with the smooth. The food is
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
much better now for quantity. The quality is always super, and invariably at supper we make what John would call “pigs of ourselves! because there is a lot left over at the end,
Last Sunday you say you just lazed about because of the heat. Well, I’m going to make you envious now. On Sunday, I and my pal from Igtham strolled along the cliffs and basked [deleted] in [/deleted] and lay in the sun with a nice sea breeze to keep us cool. If you want a decent holiday, Scarborough is the place. In peace time I should think it would be absolutely super. For example, there is a marvellous open air sea water swimming pool – very modern – not far away up the
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
coast, and it is just rotting away, because inaccessible [deleted] be [/deleted] due to barricades.
Later in the evening, a terrific storm broke with thunder and lightning. One minute all was peaceful, & the next minute a huge rush of wind came bowling along, & then the rain & thunder.
The navigation is getting on O.K. but no instrument in a plane is accurate and you have to make hundreds of adjustments to get a “fix” etc. We have our signals exam on Tuesday, and our navigation exam on July 18th, which almost finishes our cause here. We then go on to an E.F.T.S. One morning the Wing Commander of Derby E.F.T.S. gave us a talk. He had flown here with
[page break]
[underlined] 5 [/underlined]
a flying instructor & another chap. He was very decent, & told us all about life in the E.F.T.S., will I be glad to get there.
Well, I think that is all the news for now.
With love from [underlined] Hedley [/underlined]
P.S. Good Luck to Hilarious in the exams.
[postage stamp]
Mr. & Mrs. Madgett.
127. Longlands Road.
Sidcup.
[underlined] Kent [/underlined]
[page break]
[stamp]
[page break]
NO. 1330340. H.R. MADGETT.
No. 4 SQUADRON. No. 4 FLIGHT
No. 10 I.T.W. R.A.F.
Grand Hotel.
[underlined] Scarborough [/underlined]
[underlined] Saturday afternoon. [/underlined]
Dear Mum & Dad,
I have just sent on a clothes parcel, for the washing, but my swim trunks have not come yet. But still, the weather has cooled off a bit lately. Last week, in the boiling sun we had P.T. or games almost every day on the beach, & wished very much that I could go in.
Tomorrow night (Sunday) will be my [underlined] 4th [/underlined] night on duty this last week. The main reason is because another Flight is on leave. One night I slept in one of the four towers as a Wing Spotter. Thats [sic] not so bad as we are on the top floor and don’t have
[page break]
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
to move one’s bedding far. But two other nights, I had to sleep and bring the bedding down to the ground floor by the Guard Room, & take it back again up 133 stairs to our room [inserted] in the morning [/inserted] That was Wing Fire Piquet, and you have to do the black out on the ground floors and below. At 12.30 one night on this duty we had to get up, because the police were making a row about a light showing. No sooner had we got sufficienlty [sic] dressed than the light was discovered, and we had to [inserted] get [/inserted] back to bed again. Thank goodness the warning did not go, or we would have had to get up again & stand by the stirrup pumps.
But I suppose we have to take the rough with the smooth. The food is
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
much better now for quantity. The quality is always super, and invariably at supper we make what John would call “pigs of ourselves! because there is a lot left over at the end,
Last Sunday you say you just lazed about because of the heat. Well, I’m going to make you envious now. On Sunday, I and my pal from Igtham strolled along the cliffs and basked [deleted] in [/deleted] and lay in the sun with a nice sea breeze to keep us cool. If you want a decent holiday, Scarborough is the place. In peace time I should think it would be absolutely super. For example, there is a marvellous open air sea water swimming pool – very modern – not far away up the
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
coast, and it is just rotting away, because inaccessible [deleted] be [/deleted] due to barricades.
Later in the evening, a terrific storm broke with thunder and lightning. One minute all was peaceful, & the next minute a huge rush of wind came bowling along, & then the rain & thunder.
The navigation is getting on O.K. but no instrument in a plane is accurate and you have to make hundreds of adjustments to get a “fix” etc. We have our signals exam on Tuesday, and our navigation exam on July 18th, which almost finishes our cause here. We then go on to an E.F.T.S. One morning the Wing Commander of Derby E.F.T.S. gave us a talk. He had flown here with
[page break]
[underlined] 5 [/underlined]
a flying instructor & another chap. He was very decent, & told us all about life in the E.F.T.S., will I be glad to get there.
Well, I think that is all the news for now.
With love from [underlined] Hedley [/underlined]
P.S. Good Luck to Hilarious in the exams.
Collection
Citation
Hedley Robert Madgett, “Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed October 30, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/11181.
Item Relations
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