Letter to Mrs Cahir from Jim Cahir

Letter to Mrs Cahir from Jim Cahir

Handwritten letter on "Union Jack Club" headed notepaper from Sergeant F S Cahir to his mother, outlining his activities since arriving in Christchurch.

1943-07-05

Four handwritten sheets

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ECahirFSCahirM430705-0001, ECahirFSCahirM430705-0002, ECahirFSCahirM430705-0003, ECahirFSCahirM430705-0004

Sgt. FS. Cahir
419441
Postal. No 272
RAAF
Oversea's [sic]
Monday July 5th. 43.

Dear Mum

This is only going to be a short letter as I posted a letter to you this morning, I also posted two Registered Pkts, a couple of newspapers and a small present to Doreen & Dorothy. We saw Christchurch for the first time yesterday, even though it is smaller than Wellington it gives you the appearence [sic] of being twice the size of Wellington.

We did not arrive in time for Mass so Bill & myself went to Benediction in the Evening, after Benediction we went around to the Catholic Club to a dance, the trains stop early here so we stayed at the above address for the night, incidentally we are the guests of the Club & we do not have to pay for any meals

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We got an early start this morning & had a look around Christchurch, it is very [deleted] much [/deleted] simalar [sic] to Melbourne in the fact that it's [sic] streets are quite wide & straight. Most of the streets converge into a Square which seems to be the centre of the city. The trams are quite modern but they join three of them together & they look more like trains than trams.

This afternoon we were taken for a motor trip to the hills to view the city from there, we also visited the snow & I touched snow for the first time in my life, we had a hectic half an hour with a snow fight & I can quite believe what you use tell [deleted] (used tell us) [/deleted] us about the snow when we were little kids.

We arrived back in town about about [sic] 5 pm just in time for tea. We had tea at a Cafe called "Melbourne" so I asked the waitress for a spare Menu & got Bill

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& Jeff to autograth [sic] it, later on the Waitresses autograthed [sic] it & I am sending [inserted] it [/inserted home, it was so strange to see a sign "Melbourne Cafe" so far away from home.

All along I have been mentioning strange coincidences in my letters, but here is the strangest of all, I had not been in [deleted] one indecipherable word [/deleted] Christchurch five minutes when whom should I walk into but three chaps who went into [one indecipherable word] with me & whom I had not seen since the day I left [one indecipherable word], they had just finished their courses & were headed in the same direction as we are on the sister ship of ours, they have not been quite so lucky as [deleted] us [/deleted] we have

Well Mum! as the saying goes "Straw hats to all" I will close as the Boys are waiting on me to go to the pictures. I am in the best of health & hope everybody at home is. How are the Boys going in the Football? I hope Vincent has written to me! Let me know in what condition my letters arrive home in. This is the fourth letter written
Love Jim xxxxx.

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P.S. Three Photos [deleted] included [/deleted] enclosed.

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