To Jessie from Harry Redgrave

To Jessie from Harry Redgrave

A letter and envelope from Harry Redgrave to his wife Jessie. Harry writes from Redbrae and tells the story of his journey back from leave, including talking on the train to a Canadian civilian.

1940-04-16

Two handwritten sheets and an envelope

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[postage stamp]
[postmark]

Mrs H.C. Redgrave
“Redwood”
Oaken Grange Drive
Prittlewell
Essex

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Redbrae
Monkton
Ayrshire
16.4.40

My dearest Jessie,

As you can see I arrived back safely after an awful journey from London. To start with I got out of the Southend train at Barking hoping to have time at Euston for a cup of tea and as it was I had to wait for a Tube train and was no better off. I arrived at Euston about five minutes to nine and found two trains to Scotland leaving at 9.15. One was a sleeper so I settled in the other on which there was plenty of room and looked forward to a good nights [sic] sleep. I then began to look around for some of the chaps going back and could not see any of them. That made think something was wrong and I wondered if I was at the wrong station so going down the [smudged] platform [/smudged] I stopped a porter and he told me this train got in much too late and that a fast troop train was leaving from platform 12. After hurrying round to no.12. I found that at least it was the right train but it was crowded

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with soldiers and eventually I found a seat next to a civilian but in carriage full of the most uncouth lot of men of several Scottish Regiments who were singing and swearing about something terrific. Fortunately they quietened down pretty soon and I got talking with this civvie [civilian] chap who turned out to be a Canadian who had come from Vancouver B.C. via New York and Liverpool on his way to Glasgow. We found a great deal to talk about but the thing I recall the easiest was his dissapointment [sic] with London girls. He said that English girls were not to be compared with Canadian and American women. I told him that although I had not met any young ladies from the other side of the Atlantic I knew one young woman that had them all beaten.

How is Joyce getting on? I hope she is improving and that nobody else catches it.

I've got a Maps and Charts Paper to do now so I will write you more on Thursday.

All my love darling
Harry xxxx