Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents
Title
Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents
Description
Writes from Swift Current that he has been very busy but had hitch hiked to Regina on day off and visit to McNelley's. Describes visit to the town with daughter and then took train back. Describes railway station and Canadian trains. Mentions final examinations next week.
Creator
Date
1941-11-02
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Three 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.
Contributor
Identifier
EMadgettLR-AGMadgettHR411102
Transcription
[inserted] #7[/inserted]
No. 1330340. H.R. MADGETT
(Course 33.)
No. 32 E.F.T.S. R.A.F. Station
Swift Current,
Sask, [underlined] Canada [/underlined].
[underlined] 2nd. Nov. 1941 [/underlined]
[inserted] Recd Nov [underlined] 29th [/underlined][/inserted]
Dear Mum & Dad,
I am sorry I have not written for some time, but we are being rushed off our feet and have time for nothing, so I am afraid this letter will be a bit shorter than usual.
[deleted] Yes [/deleted]On Saturday we had a free day last week, and was flying all day Sunday. However, I made best use of the Saturday by going to Regina. I started out of camp at 8 a.m. and arrived at 1 p.m. hitch hiking first on a car, then a gasoline tank truck, another car, and last [deleted] on [/deleted] in the back of a cattle truck. It took me half an hour to find McNelly’s house; Mr. McNelly’s daughter Elspeth and her mother greeted me and after a small meal Elspeth took me over the town. Before seeing her I had a hunch she was quite young – you know what I mean – but she was about 36 I guess. Quite a shock! However, she was very nice, and took me over the Parliament Buildings where she works in the Public Health Dept. It’s a marvellous building, and went up on the roof where we had a [deleted] f [/deleted] view of all Regina. Although the weather was pretty lousy – light rain all the time, the coloured roofs of the
[page break]
[underlined[ 2 [/underlined]
houses, red, green, blue – and the very clean buildings, the lake in the foreground made the town look so fresh and bright. This is like all Canadian towns – they are so cheerful and colourful. Then I got an eyeful of the town and took quite a few photos although weather was not good for snaps. At 5 p.m. we were back where I met Mr. McNelly – he was over 70. I had some more to eat and then caught the 6.15 p.m. train (which left at 6.45 p.m.) and was back in camp at 11.15 p.m. The railroad station (known as the “depot”), like all other big depots was marvellously clean. The booking hall having marble pillars and all that – nothing of the grimy & dirty English stations. The engines of course are collosal [sic] things, and the coaches the last word in comfort. I did not hitch hike back because I wanted to spend as much time as I could in Regina; incidently [sic], I sent a p.c. from there by ordinary mail so you should get that after this letter.
We have our final examinations next week (except a/c recognition & arms. which we have had already), so we are going to be as busy as ever. For armaments exam I did quite well – in fact I was surprised when the results came out – I had 121.7 out of 150.
[page break]
[underlined[ 3 [/underlined] Today I had a letter from Mrs. Hamilton. I also had one from Charlie Radley. I don’t know where I can find time at all for writing. There are heaps of people I have to write to, but gosh they will have to wait.
The flying is getting on swell and have about 43 hours total dual & solo now. This week we are starting night flying. [deleted] Eash [/deleted] Each of us are supposed to have 3 hours night flying but we will be lucky if we have more than 1 hour each on the course.
Well, I will have to finish now, not because of lack of news but because of our greatest enemy at the moment – time!
With Love,
[underlined] Hedley [/underlined].
P.S. This evening it has suddenly started snowing quite hard. This is not our first fall – we have had two light falls before and the temperature below the zero. When there is no wind we don’t feel it, but if there is even a gentle breeze – gosh we feel it then and have to be careful of frost bite.
[page break]
[inserted] Received Nov 29th [underlined] 1941. [/underlined]
[postmark][postage stamps]
VIA AIR MAIL
Mr. & Mrs. L.R. Madgett.
127. Longlands Road,
Sidcup,
[underlined] Kent [/underlined].
[underlined] ENGLAND [/underlined].
PAR AVION
[page break]
[inserted] 7th letter [/inserted]
[inserted] Seal Stamp [/inserted]
VIA AIR MAIL
No. 1330340. H.R. MADGETT
(Course 33.)
No. 32 E.F.T.S. R.A.F. Station
Swift Current,
Sask, [underlined] Canada [/underlined].
[underlined] 2nd. Nov. 1941 [/underlined]
[inserted] Recd Nov [underlined] 29th [/underlined][/inserted]
Dear Mum & Dad,
I am sorry I have not written for some time, but we are being rushed off our feet and have time for nothing, so I am afraid this letter will be a bit shorter than usual.
[deleted] Yes [/deleted]On Saturday we had a free day last week, and was flying all day Sunday. However, I made best use of the Saturday by going to Regina. I started out of camp at 8 a.m. and arrived at 1 p.m. hitch hiking first on a car, then a gasoline tank truck, another car, and last [deleted] on [/deleted] in the back of a cattle truck. It took me half an hour to find McNelly’s house; Mr. McNelly’s daughter Elspeth and her mother greeted me and after a small meal Elspeth took me over the town. Before seeing her I had a hunch she was quite young – you know what I mean – but she was about 36 I guess. Quite a shock! However, she was very nice, and took me over the Parliament Buildings where she works in the Public Health Dept. It’s a marvellous building, and went up on the roof where we had a [deleted] f [/deleted] view of all Regina. Although the weather was pretty lousy – light rain all the time, the coloured roofs of the
[page break]
[underlined[ 2 [/underlined]
houses, red, green, blue – and the very clean buildings, the lake in the foreground made the town look so fresh and bright. This is like all Canadian towns – they are so cheerful and colourful. Then I got an eyeful of the town and took quite a few photos although weather was not good for snaps. At 5 p.m. we were back where I met Mr. McNelly – he was over 70. I had some more to eat and then caught the 6.15 p.m. train (which left at 6.45 p.m.) and was back in camp at 11.15 p.m. The railroad station (known as the “depot”), like all other big depots was marvellously clean. The booking hall having marble pillars and all that – nothing of the grimy & dirty English stations. The engines of course are collosal [sic] things, and the coaches the last word in comfort. I did not hitch hike back because I wanted to spend as much time as I could in Regina; incidently [sic], I sent a p.c. from there by ordinary mail so you should get that after this letter.
We have our final examinations next week (except a/c recognition & arms. which we have had already), so we are going to be as busy as ever. For armaments exam I did quite well – in fact I was surprised when the results came out – I had 121.7 out of 150.
[page break]
[underlined[ 3 [/underlined] Today I had a letter from Mrs. Hamilton. I also had one from Charlie Radley. I don’t know where I can find time at all for writing. There are heaps of people I have to write to, but gosh they will have to wait.
The flying is getting on swell and have about 43 hours total dual & solo now. This week we are starting night flying. [deleted] Eash [/deleted] Each of us are supposed to have 3 hours night flying but we will be lucky if we have more than 1 hour each on the course.
Well, I will have to finish now, not because of lack of news but because of our greatest enemy at the moment – time!
With Love,
[underlined] Hedley [/underlined].
P.S. This evening it has suddenly started snowing quite hard. This is not our first fall – we have had two light falls before and the temperature below the zero. When there is no wind we don’t feel it, but if there is even a gentle breeze – gosh we feel it then and have to be careful of frost bite.
[page break]
[inserted] Received Nov 29th [underlined] 1941. [/underlined]
[postmark][postage stamps]
VIA AIR MAIL
Mr. & Mrs. L.R. Madgett.
127. Longlands Road,
Sidcup,
[underlined] Kent [/underlined].
[underlined] ENGLAND [/underlined].
PAR AVION
[page break]
[inserted] 7th letter [/inserted]
[inserted] Seal Stamp [/inserted]
VIA AIR MAIL
Collection
Citation
Hedley Robert Madgett, “Letter from Hedley Madgett to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/11190.
Item Relations
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