Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Writes of receiving letter with photographs of his parents which he comments on. Catches up on other recent letters and cables to and from and suggests that mail going through the American consul in Algiers is best both ways. Catches up on news from home and was concerned over mother's illness. Mentions weather and contents of recently arrived Red Cross parcel. Closes with gossip and best wishes to father for his birthday in September.
Creator
Date
1941-07-20
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four 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-HE410720
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt,. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Algiers.
Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
20-7-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I have already written one letter to you to-day, but this afternoon I received your letter dated July 8th so I am destroying my first letter & starting again. I was very pleased to get this letter to-day, it has come through quicker than any previous one, & I was particularly pleased to receive the photos of the “Old Lady” & the “Old Gentleman” taken down the garden path. The day before yesterday I received your letter of June 30th, & yesterday one from Mary sent on the 18th so the last few days have been quite profitable. The photographs especially were a delight to me. For some reason one imagines things when separated & I don’t know exactly what I have imagined but it was reassuring to see these photos of you & to notice the remarkably little change which has apparently taken place. It is difficult to judge from so small a photo, but apart from the fact that Mother looks a little greyer I notice no change, except that Dad is smoking a pipe. He looks perhaps more the “Colonel” in his garden than ever, with the usual crease in his trousers. Haven’t I seen Mother’s dress before? Yes, those photos were indeed a grand surprise & I am wondering if I could
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
manage to have one taken & sent on to you. I will try. A few days [inserted] ago [/inserted] I received your telegram of July 12th & I cabled a reply immediately which I hope will have got through as did my first reply to your original prepaid cable. What happened to the telegram I sent off on July 1st in answer to yours of July 30th I do not know. That is the first to go astray & I hope the last. I am glad to hear that you have received p.c. & letters from me dated April 18th May 7th & 5th. According to your telegram, of July 12th you received a letter from Médéa dated June 15th. Should not this have been written from Aumale. Perhaps I headed it c/o The Consul & you thought I was still at Médéa. In future I shall head my letters c/o. The Consul General [inserted] des Etats Unis [/inserted] Alger, because I think this most reliable as an address to which you can always send letters. From the tone of all your recent letters I gather you are very happy in your new home & that you do enjoy your garden & your view. I am very pleased to hear this & hope you will be able to continue enjoying it & that all will go well until that great day when I get home again. There is no need to keep saying that I wish you the best of luck & hope that the great day will not be too far away. I was concerned to learn that Mother had been ill with Neuritis & I hope the Manipulative Surgeon’s relief will be permanent. Now that you know I am safe there
[page break]
[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
is no need to worry any further on my account. I am so glad to know that you have such agreeable neighbours – that means a great lot in these times – just as you say does a true friend, here you mention E.W. 7. Will you give him my love, I wrote him a letter about a week ago. Do hope he received my other from Médéa. I was wondering whether to send a communal letter to Calverley which could be passed round. Mary & Dorothy write to me most regularly & I am always pleased to hear from them. Would you thank Mary for her letter of June 18th when next you write. This is awful paper I am writing on. The ink is worse & my fountain pen nib made violent contact with the “deck” some months ago, so generally speaking I am badly equipped for writing. We have had good weather since we left Médéa seven weeks ago. It has rained twice, & for the past week or so we have scarcely seen a cloud, & although the sun has really been shining it has not been unpleasantly hot even with the mid-day temperature at the 100o F mark. The nights are generally fairly cool. I have become beautifully sunburned, my body & legs are golden brown, like the posters we used to see on railway stations. See if I can have a photo taken in shorts which will show this. I mentioned in my last letter that all the Kef. people received individually a parcel, beautifully packed, from the Red X. Mine
[page break]
[underlined] 4. [/underlined]
contained a tin of jam, margarine, paste, Cornish pie, soup, glucose, Ambrosia milk powder, cocoa, [indecipherable word] Rowntrees York, 1 oz pkt tea, Boracic powder, biscuits etc. Tony & I between us have made 14 or 16 cups of tea with half of my pkt. of tea & milk. The tea is terrifically concentrated & we still have 1 1/2 packets to go. There were no cigarettes. It seems to be “deferdu” to send these. The number of times we talk of the old “Players” although the cigarettes here are ridiculously cheap, & it is doubtful if we shall like English cigarettes after these, we certainly shall not like paying the price. How does Dad like smoking a pipe? I tried at Kef. at Christmas time but soon gave it away. I could never manage a pipe, although I smoke so many cigarettes. We all smoke a lot here. The previous letters I have sent Dad best wishes for his birthday, not knowing when my letters would arrive, so again I will send every best wish to him for September 5th & hope it will be the last time I have to send birthday wishes from here. It is getting too much of a practice now, for I remember sending wishes to Dad from Africa for his birthday last year. Well the time has arrived to say good-bye until next letter & good luck for all time. I am always thinking of you & hoping you are keeping safe & well. All my love Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Algiers.
Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
20-7-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I have already written one letter to you to-day, but this afternoon I received your letter dated July 8th so I am destroying my first letter & starting again. I was very pleased to get this letter to-day, it has come through quicker than any previous one, & I was particularly pleased to receive the photos of the “Old Lady” & the “Old Gentleman” taken down the garden path. The day before yesterday I received your letter of June 30th, & yesterday one from Mary sent on the 18th so the last few days have been quite profitable. The photographs especially were a delight to me. For some reason one imagines things when separated & I don’t know exactly what I have imagined but it was reassuring to see these photos of you & to notice the remarkably little change which has apparently taken place. It is difficult to judge from so small a photo, but apart from the fact that Mother looks a little greyer I notice no change, except that Dad is smoking a pipe. He looks perhaps more the “Colonel” in his garden than ever, with the usual crease in his trousers. Haven’t I seen Mother’s dress before? Yes, those photos were indeed a grand surprise & I am wondering if I could
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
manage to have one taken & sent on to you. I will try. A few days [inserted] ago [/inserted] I received your telegram of July 12th & I cabled a reply immediately which I hope will have got through as did my first reply to your original prepaid cable. What happened to the telegram I sent off on July 1st in answer to yours of July 30th I do not know. That is the first to go astray & I hope the last. I am glad to hear that you have received p.c. & letters from me dated April 18th May 7th & 5th. According to your telegram, of July 12th you received a letter from Médéa dated June 15th. Should not this have been written from Aumale. Perhaps I headed it c/o The Consul & you thought I was still at Médéa. In future I shall head my letters c/o. The Consul General [inserted] des Etats Unis [/inserted] Alger, because I think this most reliable as an address to which you can always send letters. From the tone of all your recent letters I gather you are very happy in your new home & that you do enjoy your garden & your view. I am very pleased to hear this & hope you will be able to continue enjoying it & that all will go well until that great day when I get home again. There is no need to keep saying that I wish you the best of luck & hope that the great day will not be too far away. I was concerned to learn that Mother had been ill with Neuritis & I hope the Manipulative Surgeon’s relief will be permanent. Now that you know I am safe there
[page break]
[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
is no need to worry any further on my account. I am so glad to know that you have such agreeable neighbours – that means a great lot in these times – just as you say does a true friend, here you mention E.W. 7. Will you give him my love, I wrote him a letter about a week ago. Do hope he received my other from Médéa. I was wondering whether to send a communal letter to Calverley which could be passed round. Mary & Dorothy write to me most regularly & I am always pleased to hear from them. Would you thank Mary for her letter of June 18th when next you write. This is awful paper I am writing on. The ink is worse & my fountain pen nib made violent contact with the “deck” some months ago, so generally speaking I am badly equipped for writing. We have had good weather since we left Médéa seven weeks ago. It has rained twice, & for the past week or so we have scarcely seen a cloud, & although the sun has really been shining it has not been unpleasantly hot even with the mid-day temperature at the 100o F mark. The nights are generally fairly cool. I have become beautifully sunburned, my body & legs are golden brown, like the posters we used to see on railway stations. See if I can have a photo taken in shorts which will show this. I mentioned in my last letter that all the Kef. people received individually a parcel, beautifully packed, from the Red X. Mine
[page break]
[underlined] 4. [/underlined]
contained a tin of jam, margarine, paste, Cornish pie, soup, glucose, Ambrosia milk powder, cocoa, [indecipherable word] Rowntrees York, 1 oz pkt tea, Boracic powder, biscuits etc. Tony & I between us have made 14 or 16 cups of tea with half of my pkt. of tea & milk. The tea is terrifically concentrated & we still have 1 1/2 packets to go. There were no cigarettes. It seems to be “deferdu” to send these. The number of times we talk of the old “Players” although the cigarettes here are ridiculously cheap, & it is doubtful if we shall like English cigarettes after these, we certainly shall not like paying the price. How does Dad like smoking a pipe? I tried at Kef. at Christmas time but soon gave it away. I could never manage a pipe, although I smoke so many cigarettes. We all smoke a lot here. The previous letters I have sent Dad best wishes for his birthday, not knowing when my letters would arrive, so again I will send every best wish to him for September 5th & hope it will be the last time I have to send birthday wishes from here. It is getting too much of a practice now, for I remember sending wishes to Dad from Africa for his birthday last year. Well the time has arrived to say good-bye until next letter & good luck for all time. I am always thinking of you & hoping you are keeping safe & well. All my love Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22542.
Item Relations
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