Letter to David Donaldson from Hank Cooper

Letter to David Donaldson from Hank Cooper

Letter to David Donaldson from Hank Cooper written post war. Hank gives news of his activities, people and the departure of wartime colleagues. He writes of pet dog and going to London to see semi-finals of Royal Air Force individual squash championships. Mentions flying and future change to Lancaster. Additional information about this item was kindly provided by the donor

1945-12-17

Two page typewritten document

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ECooperHBDonaldsonDW451217

Officers' Mess,
Royal Air Force Station,
WATTON,
Nr. Thetford,
Norfolk.
17th December, 1945.
Dear Winco,
Thought I must send a few lines to let you know the great and enormous empire of R.W.E. Watton is still flourishing.
Today (Monday) there is a terrific X wind on our one runway, exactly 90˚ out of the wind at about 25 knots! so there you are; a real adjutant's day so we can get down to a bit of quiet and study on A.P. 837 and 'Customs of Service' etc. (never use etc. at Staff College!).
As you probably know, Ken left the R.A.F. About a month ago; we had a most tearful cess at Watton with Ken, Peter Wood, Buggie, Wadeson, Crow and myself when we were somewhat heavy with 'Port' our monthly training target is ' at about 23.59 (don't suppose you've got a drop of rum have you?). Dusky was brought in and handed over to me for onward transmission to the Group Captain.
Dusky is getting quite fat and she looks really well with a fine coat, but she is inclined to be a bit lazy. She seems to miss all the stone-throwing at Foulsham.
Crow, Crotch and Wadeson are all out now and I am sure we are the poorer off for their loss. Crow left in true Scotch style ;- in the bar at lunch time straight through the afternoon and emerged at tea-time and then proceeded to hand spring and ballet in the ante-room, all very fine.
I went up to London last week-end 10/12 to see the semi-finals [inserted] and finals [/inserted] of the R.A.F. Individual squash championship. G/C Willis entered and was knocked out first round; he was unfortunate to play a fellow by the name of Burnett who had been the holder of the R.A.F. Championship of three years just preceding the war. Burnett got to the finals and was beaten after a very
[page break]
good game by J. Dear, who by the way is an L.A.C. In the R.A.F., really excellent player.
We have been doing quite a bit of flying which keeps everybody interested, our monthly training target is 20 hours per bod per month; we in the near future (June) are going to change to Lancs. so that will be fun.
Daubney was awarded the Legion of Merit (Officer); I saw this in the flight last week, Mr Card still sucks his cigarette holder.
Well must close now, wishing you both a very Happy Christmas.
Yours
[underlined] Hank [/underlined]

[underlined] P.S. [/underlined] If you are ever this way do look us up.