Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Writes that he has not had any mail for some time but he hopes that family affair has settled down. Has difficulty associating his mothers new location with home. Writes of his visit to a dentist. Contrasts the countryside to the last time they travelled from Tunis on arriving at camp, it was now green. He comments that he cannot get into his uniform but should get back to normal when back to normal life. Comments on exercise and the climate and that the locals speak bad French. Writes that he is not receiving his pay and two shillings a week is all he gets. Concludes by announcing the arrival of a number of letters. Letter contains enclosure stating that the British examiner was not responsible for the mutilation of this letter.
Creator
Date
1941-04-04
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Three page handwritten letter and one page printed document
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.
Contributor
Identifier
EHudsonJDHudsonP-HE410404-02
Transcription
[Note]
P.C. 11A.
The British Examiner is not responsible for the mutilation of this letter.
[signed]
[/Note]
[underlined] BRITISH PRISONER OF WAR [/underlined]
SGT. CHEF. J. D. HUDSON
CAMP DE SEJOUR SURVEILLE
LE KEF
TUNISIE
AFRIQUE DU NORD
4-4-41
Mr Dear Mother & Dad,
I have not received any news from you for over a fortnight, so there is nothing to comment upon in this letter. I hope that Dad is settling down to his new condition & trust that life will be much kinder to you both in the days to come than it has been during the last year. Although I think about you a lot my mind always pictures the scenes at 10 Moorside Road, for some reason I cannot associate you with Nelson at all. When I think of home & coming back home I always imagine it to be Salford. About the only thing that has happened to me since I wrote my last letter is that I have been to Tunis[?] with Tony to visit the Dentist. It gave us both a break for a few days although we were still confined to the Hospital. Mine was merely a case of filling – my teeth are fairly good – and it was a straight forward job. Africa presented a very different picture to the last time when we came up here[?] from Tunis on our arrival. Then there wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen. This time the fields were green with wheat about two feet high & the vines were just beginning to leaf. The gardens are now at their best in fact equal to about June in England. I expect in another 6 weeks (because the heat is now beginning) everything will be dried up again. Tunis felt close after [indecipherable word]. Thank God we are high up at this place. Am[?] hoping in a few days we shall get our[?] walks back again. I miss them a lot. I cannot
[page break]
wear my uniform now, I cannot button the jacket & the trousers nearly burst when I try. I weigh about 10½ stones [deleted] now [/deleted] but expect I shall lose a lot of this when I get back to a normal life. I do all the exercise lines[?] I reasonably can – as the [indecipherable word] machine & throwing our[?] polo ball about. Am going about in shorts & a sleeveless shirt now. The nights are getting warmer also. It gets dark about 7.30 pm & light again about 6 am. If I don’t alter before I come home you will be surprised with me. I look well because I am sunburned, but believe me I am thoroughly “browned off” & use the R.A.F. slang. Life is so idle. There is no one to speak good French with except may be one or two of our own boys – the Arabs speak terribly – and we just cannot reap the benefits we should if we were free. By the way, I will tell you again now in case my earlier letter did not get through – that I am not receiving my pay. About 2/- (two shillings) per week is what I get. I also tried a long time.
[page break]
Hurray. Just received 4 letters from you dated January 26th, 27th Feb 3rd & 6th. So glad the allotment is through. If it is any help – use it, do. You can cable as often as you wish – there are no regulations. Chef does [underlined] not [/underlined] mean [underlined] cook [/underlined] Sgt. Chef is the French equivalent to our flying rank.
All love Douglas
P.C. 11A.
The British Examiner is not responsible for the mutilation of this letter.
[signed]
[/Note]
[underlined] BRITISH PRISONER OF WAR [/underlined]
SGT. CHEF. J. D. HUDSON
CAMP DE SEJOUR SURVEILLE
LE KEF
TUNISIE
AFRIQUE DU NORD
4-4-41
Mr Dear Mother & Dad,
I have not received any news from you for over a fortnight, so there is nothing to comment upon in this letter. I hope that Dad is settling down to his new condition & trust that life will be much kinder to you both in the days to come than it has been during the last year. Although I think about you a lot my mind always pictures the scenes at 10 Moorside Road, for some reason I cannot associate you with Nelson at all. When I think of home & coming back home I always imagine it to be Salford. About the only thing that has happened to me since I wrote my last letter is that I have been to Tunis[?] with Tony to visit the Dentist. It gave us both a break for a few days although we were still confined to the Hospital. Mine was merely a case of filling – my teeth are fairly good – and it was a straight forward job. Africa presented a very different picture to the last time when we came up here[?] from Tunis on our arrival. Then there wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen. This time the fields were green with wheat about two feet high & the vines were just beginning to leaf. The gardens are now at their best in fact equal to about June in England. I expect in another 6 weeks (because the heat is now beginning) everything will be dried up again. Tunis felt close after [indecipherable word]. Thank God we are high up at this place. Am[?] hoping in a few days we shall get our[?] walks back again. I miss them a lot. I cannot
[page break]
wear my uniform now, I cannot button the jacket & the trousers nearly burst when I try. I weigh about 10½ stones [deleted] now [/deleted] but expect I shall lose a lot of this when I get back to a normal life. I do all the exercise lines[?] I reasonably can – as the [indecipherable word] machine & throwing our[?] polo ball about. Am going about in shorts & a sleeveless shirt now. The nights are getting warmer also. It gets dark about 7.30 pm & light again about 6 am. If I don’t alter before I come home you will be surprised with me. I look well because I am sunburned, but believe me I am thoroughly “browned off” & use the R.A.F. slang. Life is so idle. There is no one to speak good French with except may be one or two of our own boys – the Arabs speak terribly – and we just cannot reap the benefits we should if we were free. By the way, I will tell you again now in case my earlier letter did not get through – that I am not receiving my pay. About 2/- (two shillings) per week is what I get. I also tried a long time.
[page break]
Hurray. Just received 4 letters from you dated January 26th, 27th Feb 3rd & 6th. So glad the allotment is through. If it is any help – use it, do. You can cable as often as you wish – there are no regulations. Chef does [underlined] not [/underlined] mean [underlined] cook [/underlined] Sgt. Chef is the French equivalent to our flying rank.
All love Douglas
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22517.
Item Relations
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