Letter to Mrs Cahir from Jim Cahir
Title
Letter to Mrs Cahir from Jim Cahir
Description
Letter from Flight Sergeant Jim Cahir to his mother and brothers. He writes about his arrangements for his Christmas leave which he will be spending with his aunt, the weather, about the best way to send post between Australia and England, his social activities and friends and colleagues.
Creator
Date
1943-12-19
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Three 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
ECahirFSCahirM-P-V431219-0001, ECahirFSCahirM-P-V431219-0002, ECahirFSCahirM-P-V431219-0003
Transcription
F/sgT CAHIR. FS.
AUS419441
Kodak House
Kingsway
London.
Dec 19th. 43.
Dear Mum Paddy & Vincent.
Well here it is within a week to Christmas, how I would like to be home for this part of the year, still please God next Christmas I will be home. The weather of late has been real Christmas weather except for the snow, I would like it to snow, just to see what a “White Christmas” is like. I am due to go on leave in three days time, I think I will spend a day in London with the Boys then go on down to Reading Christmas Eve, I can’t take any of the Boys to Reading as Auntie Louie expects a couple of relations over Christmas
Sheila & Eileen ought to be home now, I have not heard from Bath for about a week so don’t know how things are down there. I am going to try & get down to Bath to see them, I also want to dash up to London to see our Engineer’s wedding, how I am going to fit everything in I don’t know!
The Plum Pudding & numerous other things from the parcel I will be taking to Auntie Louie for Christmas dinner. I haven’t sent you anything for Christmas for the simple reason there is nothing I can send you, so I am having a Mass said for your intentions, it will be said in the local township I won’t be able to attend it, but I will remember you all in my prayers.
[page break]
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
I received your Airgrath [sic] Oct 18 about a week ago, you mention in it that Bernie Brophy was killed, I was very sorry to hear it, I wrote a brief note offering my sympathies to Jim Brophy. How are you receiving my mail up to date you have not received any surface mail from me, don’t forget to let me know how long Air mail takes etc and advise me how to post letters. Sea mail from Aust to Eng takes three months, airgraths [sic] take 14 days to 28 days, airmail also takes 14 days to 28 days, this is the 2/1 airmail the 4d is useless. Send your letters sea mail, if there is something special use Airgrath [sic] or Airmail, Airmail is sometimes better than Airgrath. [sic]
This week has been very quiet, I went into Beverley twice to the Pictures otherwise I wrote letters & went to bed every other night. I can’t go to the dances at present as I tore the ligements [sic] in my leg [deleted] i [/deleted] [inserted] during [/inserted] last week’s football match, I can walk quite easily but when I do any fancy steps my leg hurts, so I thought I would knock the dancing off for a week or two.
During the week I received a letter from Bill Purtell, he is stationed in Scotland and says it is extremely cold up there, he is still awaiting a posting to a squadron. Last night a misfortune over took me, I happened to venture inside the Mess with my cap on and it cost me nearly 10/- for drinks, it is the unwritten law that if you enter the Mess with a hat on you shout drinks for all present in the Mess.
When you think of it Mum you might include in the next parcel a couple of writing pads this style if you can get it, if you can’t any paper that will hold ink. I bought this pad in New York and it is rapidly coming to an end, writing pads over here are not too good.
P.T.O.
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
In my last letter I enclosed five snaps & an A.M.P. policy the letter before [inserted] that [/inserted] I enclosed three snaps, did you receive them? Let me know, I am enclosing three snaps in this letter.
Well Mum that seems to be the lot at present, I hope you have a very happy Christmas, remember me in your prayers.
Your loving son & brother
Jim xxx
AUS419441
Kodak House
Kingsway
London.
Dec 19th. 43.
Dear Mum Paddy & Vincent.
Well here it is within a week to Christmas, how I would like to be home for this part of the year, still please God next Christmas I will be home. The weather of late has been real Christmas weather except for the snow, I would like it to snow, just to see what a “White Christmas” is like. I am due to go on leave in three days time, I think I will spend a day in London with the Boys then go on down to Reading Christmas Eve, I can’t take any of the Boys to Reading as Auntie Louie expects a couple of relations over Christmas
Sheila & Eileen ought to be home now, I have not heard from Bath for about a week so don’t know how things are down there. I am going to try & get down to Bath to see them, I also want to dash up to London to see our Engineer’s wedding, how I am going to fit everything in I don’t know!
The Plum Pudding & numerous other things from the parcel I will be taking to Auntie Louie for Christmas dinner. I haven’t sent you anything for Christmas for the simple reason there is nothing I can send you, so I am having a Mass said for your intentions, it will be said in the local township I won’t be able to attend it, but I will remember you all in my prayers.
[page break]
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
I received your Airgrath [sic] Oct 18 about a week ago, you mention in it that Bernie Brophy was killed, I was very sorry to hear it, I wrote a brief note offering my sympathies to Jim Brophy. How are you receiving my mail up to date you have not received any surface mail from me, don’t forget to let me know how long Air mail takes etc and advise me how to post letters. Sea mail from Aust to Eng takes three months, airgraths [sic] take 14 days to 28 days, airmail also takes 14 days to 28 days, this is the 2/1 airmail the 4d is useless. Send your letters sea mail, if there is something special use Airgrath [sic] or Airmail, Airmail is sometimes better than Airgrath. [sic]
This week has been very quiet, I went into Beverley twice to the Pictures otherwise I wrote letters & went to bed every other night. I can’t go to the dances at present as I tore the ligements [sic] in my leg [deleted] i [/deleted] [inserted] during [/inserted] last week’s football match, I can walk quite easily but when I do any fancy steps my leg hurts, so I thought I would knock the dancing off for a week or two.
During the week I received a letter from Bill Purtell, he is stationed in Scotland and says it is extremely cold up there, he is still awaiting a posting to a squadron. Last night a misfortune over took me, I happened to venture inside the Mess with my cap on and it cost me nearly 10/- for drinks, it is the unwritten law that if you enter the Mess with a hat on you shout drinks for all present in the Mess.
When you think of it Mum you might include in the next parcel a couple of writing pads this style if you can get it, if you can’t any paper that will hold ink. I bought this pad in New York and it is rapidly coming to an end, writing pads over here are not too good.
P.T.O.
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
In my last letter I enclosed five snaps & an A.M.P. policy the letter before [inserted] that [/inserted] I enclosed three snaps, did you receive them? Let me know, I am enclosing three snaps in this letter.
Well Mum that seems to be the lot at present, I hope you have a very happy Christmas, remember me in your prayers.
Your loving son & brother
Jim xxx
Collection
Citation
Jim Cahir, “Letter to Mrs Cahir from Jim Cahir,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/20043.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.