To Jessie from Harry Redgrave

To Jessie from Harry Redgrave

A letter and envelope from Harry Redgrave to his wife Jessie. Harry writes about life at Redbrae including his medical exam and moving accommodation. He refers to the bombing in Southend and Sheerness and warns Jessie about the danger from shrapnel.

1940-04-22

Two handwritten sheets and an envelope

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.

ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400422-0001,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400422-0002,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400422-0003

[postmark]
[postage stamp]

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

[page break]

“Redbrae”
Monkton
Ayrshire
Monday 22.4.40

My dearest Jessie,

I have read in the paper of your air-raid experiences over the week end and hope that all at Redwood were not over disturbed. From reports either you at Southend or Sheerness had a lot of falling shrapnel so be very careful darling and do not be tempted to go out in the garden to “look at the fun.” You never know where the pieces of bullet or shell may drop so let caution overrule your curiosity.

I have had my annual medical exam and been passed fit for flying though I had a bit of trouble standing on one leg and had to have a second try at it. Our course has had some bad news today being told that we are going into huts next week end. [sic] It will come hard after our comfortable billets and the thought of eating that awful aero-drome food three times a day makes me feel thin already but I suppose I shall survive and even be fit enough to make love to you during your visit to Prestwick. Apparently these huts will be only partially complete and there will be no canteen or hot

[page break]

water and facilities for studying will be just non ext. [?] All this just one week before our finals is very disquieting and is bound to have an effect on our results for we had settled down to a fortnight of hard work getting the finer parts of the course worked out.

Hope your drenching hasn't given you a cold or made you susceptible to G.M. dear. Did you give yourself a good rub down when you got in? It was nice to hear Joyce continues to improve and by the time you get this she will have her Pat with her again. Tell Mum I hope she is keeping her chin up in these trying times and that she and Gwen are keeping well. It made my mouth water telling me about Pam and the greens as we still live on beans and swedes for veg. I begin to wonder whether they grow anything in that line at all in Scotland.

I am enclosing £1 to pay to Mr Tickett next time you are in Southend and tell him that as soon as I get my promotion I will square him up.

Its [sic] time to get on with my work so goodnight my sweet

Your loving husband
Harry.