To Jessie from Harry Redgrave
Title
To Jessie from Harry Redgrave
Description
A letter from Harry Redgrave to his wife Jessie. Harry relates his most recent examination results, which indicate he should pass his final ones. He mentions receiving heavily censored letters from a friend posted to a controlled area of Scotland and discusses the progress of the war.
Creator
Date
1940-04-19
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four handwritten sheets
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
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0001,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0002,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0003,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0004
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0002,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0003,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400419-0004
Transcription
Redbrae
Monkton
Ayrshire
Fri 19.4.40
Dear Jessie,
I am so glad to hear that nobody else has caught Joyces [sic] Nazi Measles and I think from your letter of Thursday that you enjoyed playing mother to Baby Pat. She is a good baby though and the thought of a little boy as good is not at all [smudged] disturbing. [/smudged] But still we must get the war finished first and then we can think of luxuries.
Yesterday was pay day and I was going to write and send on your allowance but heard we should have our [smudged] exam [/smudged] figures today so here goes.
Total percentage 83% an increase of 3%
This total is made up of
[subjects and marks]
Plotting (DR)
Meteorology
W.T.
Photos & Reco [sic]
Maps and Charts
Magnetism
Instruments
[page break]
Not bad eh. Much more than I expected and even more than your forecast. Ive [sic] only got to do as well in the finals and everything will be O.K.
Whats [sic] your crazy paving like I bet you did not find it difficult to make it crazy.
Tell Joyce I am glad she is feeling better and I know she must miss Patricia and I hope baby continues to be good with you and Mum. Is Gwen upset because she cannot go to school? Pamela wont [sic] mind will she. Its [sic] no good me saying anything [inserted] about [/inserted] Joyce's complaint because all I should have to do is go over to the M.O. every morning and as for being contagious well everybody must take a chance.
Our finals have been postponed until May 5 [underlined] th [/underlined] and theres [sic] a chance we may get a leave Whitsun. Perhaps you will be able to come to Prestwick then so we must hope for the best.
Our chief instructor went over our exam papers with us individually today and the only comment he made was, “Having done quite well in the twelve weeks I don’t think you have anything to worry about .” Sounds quite good doesnt [sic] it. [sic]
[page break]
3
As this is Friday night and you cannot get this until Monday I will get your P.O. tomorrow and Post this. I have just come in from an hour and a half on the golf course and we have had some good fun and some badly needed [deleted] exersize [/deleted] exercise.
Do you remember Grandy who you met at tea in Bexhill he was the oldest of the group well he has passed his finals at St Athans and so has Mountstephen who if you remember came round in his car one Sunday morning when I was home on pass one week-end last November. They have gone to Evanton in Rossshire [sic] which is in the controlled area [deleted] M [/deleted] North of the Caledonian Canal for the armament course. I had a letter from him on Monday which had been opened by a censor and which contained hardly any news at all and did not say even what he was doing there but explained that owing to the strict censorship there was very little he could write. I was thinking that if I get sent there we shall not be able to put much in our letters to each other if they are all going
[page break]
to be opened.
We have just had Lord Haw Haw on and with all these conflicting views on the conditions in Norway its [sic] hard to see how things are going. Of one thing I am certain and that is that the war has developed into the phase that we had hoped to avoid and that from now it will be a fight to a finish with no hope of a peace until one side is beaten. It is now a matter of time before the whole business of bombing towns and inland objectives will begin although as long as Holland and Belgium are free I think you at Southend will be as safe as anywhere. Darling I hope and pray that all remains well with our little family and that peace will see us all happily together again. Give my love to all
From your loving husband
Harry. xxxxx
Monkton
Ayrshire
Fri 19.4.40
Dear Jessie,
I am so glad to hear that nobody else has caught Joyces [sic] Nazi Measles and I think from your letter of Thursday that you enjoyed playing mother to Baby Pat. She is a good baby though and the thought of a little boy as good is not at all [smudged] disturbing. [/smudged] But still we must get the war finished first and then we can think of luxuries.
Yesterday was pay day and I was going to write and send on your allowance but heard we should have our [smudged] exam [/smudged] figures today so here goes.
Total percentage 83% an increase of 3%
This total is made up of
[subjects and marks]
Plotting (DR)
Meteorology
W.T.
Photos & Reco [sic]
Maps and Charts
Magnetism
Instruments
[page break]
Not bad eh. Much more than I expected and even more than your forecast. Ive [sic] only got to do as well in the finals and everything will be O.K.
Whats [sic] your crazy paving like I bet you did not find it difficult to make it crazy.
Tell Joyce I am glad she is feeling better and I know she must miss Patricia and I hope baby continues to be good with you and Mum. Is Gwen upset because she cannot go to school? Pamela wont [sic] mind will she. Its [sic] no good me saying anything [inserted] about [/inserted] Joyce's complaint because all I should have to do is go over to the M.O. every morning and as for being contagious well everybody must take a chance.
Our finals have been postponed until May 5 [underlined] th [/underlined] and theres [sic] a chance we may get a leave Whitsun. Perhaps you will be able to come to Prestwick then so we must hope for the best.
Our chief instructor went over our exam papers with us individually today and the only comment he made was, “Having done quite well in the twelve weeks I don’t think you have anything to worry about .” Sounds quite good doesnt [sic] it. [sic]
[page break]
3
As this is Friday night and you cannot get this until Monday I will get your P.O. tomorrow and Post this. I have just come in from an hour and a half on the golf course and we have had some good fun and some badly needed [deleted] exersize [/deleted] exercise.
Do you remember Grandy who you met at tea in Bexhill he was the oldest of the group well he has passed his finals at St Athans and so has Mountstephen who if you remember came round in his car one Sunday morning when I was home on pass one week-end last November. They have gone to Evanton in Rossshire [sic] which is in the controlled area [deleted] M [/deleted] North of the Caledonian Canal for the armament course. I had a letter from him on Monday which had been opened by a censor and which contained hardly any news at all and did not say even what he was doing there but explained that owing to the strict censorship there was very little he could write. I was thinking that if I get sent there we shall not be able to put much in our letters to each other if they are all going
[page break]
to be opened.
We have just had Lord Haw Haw on and with all these conflicting views on the conditions in Norway its [sic] hard to see how things are going. Of one thing I am certain and that is that the war has developed into the phase that we had hoped to avoid and that from now it will be a fight to a finish with no hope of a peace until one side is beaten. It is now a matter of time before the whole business of bombing towns and inland objectives will begin although as long as Holland and Belgium are free I think you at Southend will be as safe as anywhere. Darling I hope and pray that all remains well with our little family and that peace will see us all happily together again. Give my love to all
From your loving husband
Harry. xxxxx
Collection
Citation
Harry Redgrave, “To Jessie from Harry Redgrave,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/15892.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.