Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Catches up with mail and cables sent and received. Mentioned leaving previous camp and since arriving at new one has been please to receive cables especially witch pre-paid replies. Reminisces over life at home but thinks it will be another two years before they can get back home. Continues with news of letters arriving. Writes about the weather, physical activities and the local terrain. He writes he is getting very brown and asks if they are keeping the stamps from his letters. Comments on speed of mail and directs them where to find the location of his camps on a map.
Creator
Date
1941-06-19
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page handwritten letter
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-HE410619
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
Camp de Séjour Surveillé
Aumale. Algerie.
Afrique du Nord.
19-6-41
My Dear Mother & Dad
My last letter was written to you on the 15th June in reply to your letter dated May 24th received on that date. In that letter you suggested sending a cable with a pre-paid reply & therefore I wired you immediately asking you to do so & I was very glad to receive your cable reply to-day with a “Bond” for 72 francs which I wonder is it equal to 5/-? To-morrow I shall send you a telegram worded as follows:- “Removed Camp Militaire Aumale Algerie, received all cables, several letters, latest dated May 29th, writing twice weekly, well late [inserted] in form [indecipherable word] [/inserted] Hudson” My earlier letters will have explained that we left Médéa to come to this place on May 30th, I have been very pleased to receive your cables & if occasionally you send pre-paid replies it will make it much easier for me to cable you. On June 16th, that is three days ago I received your cable, telling about the “chestnut trees in bloom bring happiest, [inserted] memories [/inserted] renewed hopes – all love” It is two years ago that we saw these together and I hope with all my heart it will not be another two years before we may be together to see them again. To-day I was very pleased to receive your Air Mail letter dated May 29th, hence the last bit of my cable. Practically all your earlier letters I have received, & judging from the tone of both letters & cables you seem to be very
[page break]
happy in your new home. I realise that you will like it a lot better if you have a garden and such a good view. I do hope that the luck will hold for you both. For about 5 days now there has not been a cloud in the sky & it is getting increasingly warmer & the flies are beginning. We have stopped playing football in the evening and play base-ball – the American game instead, it is not so strenuous. Since we arrived here it has rained twice, each time thunder rain. Now the ground is baked hard and is getting brown. There are no vines here, in fact a very disappointing terrain after Médéa, very unhospitable & dry. Médéa was really a fertile spot & indeed pleasant. I am getting gradually browner, chest and back, I mean properly brown not that stupid red colour I got in England. It requires great caution [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted], I dare not attempt to sunbathe now except in the early morning walks & in the evening to play baseball without a shirt. What do you think of the stamp collection on the envelope? Are you keeping the stamps you receive? On each envelope there is 3 francs, 50 centimes worth of stamps. If the rate of exchange (that is if there is a rate of exchange) is 176 francs to the £1. it costs about the same from here for Air Mail letters as from Blighty. But the Air Mail letters from here appear to be very slow. Some control must hold them up a long time. You said you could not find Médéa on the map. It is 60 miles South of Alger. & Aumale is 75 miles East South East of Médéa. The desert is not far from here, in fact some Arabs have camels here. Most supercilious looking animals, & filthy dirty in spite of their smirking appearance. And now good-bye, with all my love & best wishes. Keep your chin up.
Douglas.
Camp de Séjour Surveillé
Aumale. Algerie.
Afrique du Nord.
19-6-41
My Dear Mother & Dad
My last letter was written to you on the 15th June in reply to your letter dated May 24th received on that date. In that letter you suggested sending a cable with a pre-paid reply & therefore I wired you immediately asking you to do so & I was very glad to receive your cable reply to-day with a “Bond” for 72 francs which I wonder is it equal to 5/-? To-morrow I shall send you a telegram worded as follows:- “Removed Camp Militaire Aumale Algerie, received all cables, several letters, latest dated May 29th, writing twice weekly, well late [inserted] in form [indecipherable word] [/inserted] Hudson” My earlier letters will have explained that we left Médéa to come to this place on May 30th, I have been very pleased to receive your cables & if occasionally you send pre-paid replies it will make it much easier for me to cable you. On June 16th, that is three days ago I received your cable, telling about the “chestnut trees in bloom bring happiest, [inserted] memories [/inserted] renewed hopes – all love” It is two years ago that we saw these together and I hope with all my heart it will not be another two years before we may be together to see them again. To-day I was very pleased to receive your Air Mail letter dated May 29th, hence the last bit of my cable. Practically all your earlier letters I have received, & judging from the tone of both letters & cables you seem to be very
[page break]
happy in your new home. I realise that you will like it a lot better if you have a garden and such a good view. I do hope that the luck will hold for you both. For about 5 days now there has not been a cloud in the sky & it is getting increasingly warmer & the flies are beginning. We have stopped playing football in the evening and play base-ball – the American game instead, it is not so strenuous. Since we arrived here it has rained twice, each time thunder rain. Now the ground is baked hard and is getting brown. There are no vines here, in fact a very disappointing terrain after Médéa, very unhospitable & dry. Médéa was really a fertile spot & indeed pleasant. I am getting gradually browner, chest and back, I mean properly brown not that stupid red colour I got in England. It requires great caution [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted], I dare not attempt to sunbathe now except in the early morning walks & in the evening to play baseball without a shirt. What do you think of the stamp collection on the envelope? Are you keeping the stamps you receive? On each envelope there is 3 francs, 50 centimes worth of stamps. If the rate of exchange (that is if there is a rate of exchange) is 176 francs to the £1. it costs about the same from here for Air Mail letters as from Blighty. But the Air Mail letters from here appear to be very slow. Some control must hold them up a long time. You said you could not find Médéa on the map. It is 60 miles South of Alger. & Aumale is 75 miles East South East of Médéa. The desert is not far from here, in fact some Arabs have camels here. Most supercilious looking animals, & filthy dirty in spite of their smirking appearance. And now good-bye, with all my love & best wishes. Keep your chin up.
Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22532.
Item Relations
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