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, mentions he has had now received eight photographs from home. Asks them to thank other people who have sent him letters. Contrast English countryside to his current locations and mentions that home should not be taken for granted. Complains at not taking an more active part in war and that life their is very boring. Catches up with family news and tells them not to worry over cost of his mail to then as he considers letters are most important to him. Concludes with family gossip.
Creator
Date
1941-08-24
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-HE410824
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
24-8-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Since my last letter to you acknowledging receipt of your telegram to which I replied on the 18th & your letters dated July 14th & 29th, also one from E.W.7. dated July 7th, I have received one from Ted Hole written on July 27th & two further ones from you dated July 18th & July 27th, each enclosing 2 snapshots making the total I have so far received eight. Six taken by the Brownie, & two by your neighbour’s camera. So the last week has been a good one for mail after a rather quiet period without much news. There is no need to say how glad I am to have all these letters & the photographs and to know that you are keeping well, & I thank you for them all. Perhaps you would let Ted know I was glad to receive his letter & to learn that Hughie & Ben were married & he and Harold engaged. I am particularly glad to know that my cable of July 13th arrived on the 15th & I expect that since you will have my later ones sent on August 4th & 18th. I cannot understand why the cable I sent off on July 1st took a fortnight.
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
In one of your letters you say you wonder if when I get home I shall find the English country homely & simple after so much grandeur. Well I don’t know exactly how I shall regard the English country side – very probably I shall regard it as being homely but certainly not simple. As for the grandeur – well the last time I had a real glimpse of the district around here it presented a picture of burnt-up waste with plenty of dust & dried up streams. So I shall imagine the effect of the true English country will act as a balm & to breathe some real English fresh air after the heat laden air of the past weeks would be more than a tonic. Never underrate your country it means more than a lot in every way, & the safety of this place does not compensate one tenth for all that which is temporarily lost. We are playing a quiet part in this war and believe me I could not have chosen any worse. Sometimes it gets deadly doing nothing & having nowhere to go, & you will remember how much I used to enjoy being up and doing.
Well I am glad to hear that John’s wish has at last been gratified & send him my congratulations. I hesitate to compare his existence now with mine. You were mentioning the stamping of letters. I do not stamp them myself
[page break]
[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
now, but understand that the cost is debited to my account at home just in the same way as is my other allowance paid out by the Consul so you need [deleted] to [/deleted] not worry about that, or think I am spending too much of my allowance in writing to you. Nonsense – writing home I rank as the biggest privilege I have anyway, & I am only glad you are receiving my letters even if they do take 8 weeks. I believe now that there is only one despatch of mail per week from here & that sounds as though you will receive letters at approximately weekly intervals. However I am going to try & continue writing about twice a week. This will probably mean that two letters will arrive together, but on the other hand they will probably get separated in the post. We shall see.
As a result of the snapshots I have received I have formed a very good idea of what your new home is like & I am very pleased that your garden is able to afford so much pleasure. I have a fair idea of the district because I have motorcycled through Nelson some few times & I do know the country around is quite attractive. I am especially pleased to know that you find it so “quiet” after W/1.
I am still keeping well but getting weary of the monotony. It has been oppressively warm for some days
[page break]
[underlined] 4. [/underlined]
but before long the thunderstorms should start. I am basing this on last September weather when occaisonally [sic] we had such big thunderstorms in the evenings. Hope I am not here to see next August terminate.
There has been somewhat of a bridge craze during the last week or so. It all began as the result of a bridge contest held recently. Tony & I breezed over the semi-final & played four hours over 3 rubbers & lost by 170 points. That was tough luck. This game makes a good diversion. I have picked up a book of Thackeray’s – “Henry Esmond” & am reading that at the moment. Finished “Gone with the Wind” ages ago & since have found a few fairly passable books. Our selection is not very good here. Not as good as Kef. I am glad to see that Dad is persevering with his pipe & I wonder what he smokes, and if he likes it. Did he buy new pipes? Tomatoes are here again & I eat quite a lot. There is no white bread, only brown & Arab. The Arab is rather like Forle. Do not know how you spell that word. Grapes are here, but are not the luxury they are in England, & do not compensate for the Roast Beef, or Mutton. Well once again the bottom of the page is reached & I must say good-bye until next letter. I am writing this one on my knee. So with the usual best wishes I will close. My thoughts are always with you both. All my love.
Douglas.
c/o Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
24-8-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Since my last letter to you acknowledging receipt of your telegram to which I replied on the 18th & your letters dated July 14th & 29th, also one from E.W.7. dated July 7th, I have received one from Ted Hole written on July 27th & two further ones from you dated July 18th & July 27th, each enclosing 2 snapshots making the total I have so far received eight. Six taken by the Brownie, & two by your neighbour’s camera. So the last week has been a good one for mail after a rather quiet period without much news. There is no need to say how glad I am to have all these letters & the photographs and to know that you are keeping well, & I thank you for them all. Perhaps you would let Ted know I was glad to receive his letter & to learn that Hughie & Ben were married & he and Harold engaged. I am particularly glad to know that my cable of July 13th arrived on the 15th & I expect that since you will have my later ones sent on August 4th & 18th. I cannot understand why the cable I sent off on July 1st took a fortnight.
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
In one of your letters you say you wonder if when I get home I shall find the English country homely & simple after so much grandeur. Well I don’t know exactly how I shall regard the English country side – very probably I shall regard it as being homely but certainly not simple. As for the grandeur – well the last time I had a real glimpse of the district around here it presented a picture of burnt-up waste with plenty of dust & dried up streams. So I shall imagine the effect of the true English country will act as a balm & to breathe some real English fresh air after the heat laden air of the past weeks would be more than a tonic. Never underrate your country it means more than a lot in every way, & the safety of this place does not compensate one tenth for all that which is temporarily lost. We are playing a quiet part in this war and believe me I could not have chosen any worse. Sometimes it gets deadly doing nothing & having nowhere to go, & you will remember how much I used to enjoy being up and doing.
Well I am glad to hear that John’s wish has at last been gratified & send him my congratulations. I hesitate to compare his existence now with mine. You were mentioning the stamping of letters. I do not stamp them myself
[page break]
[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
now, but understand that the cost is debited to my account at home just in the same way as is my other allowance paid out by the Consul so you need [deleted] to [/deleted] not worry about that, or think I am spending too much of my allowance in writing to you. Nonsense – writing home I rank as the biggest privilege I have anyway, & I am only glad you are receiving my letters even if they do take 8 weeks. I believe now that there is only one despatch of mail per week from here & that sounds as though you will receive letters at approximately weekly intervals. However I am going to try & continue writing about twice a week. This will probably mean that two letters will arrive together, but on the other hand they will probably get separated in the post. We shall see.
As a result of the snapshots I have received I have formed a very good idea of what your new home is like & I am very pleased that your garden is able to afford so much pleasure. I have a fair idea of the district because I have motorcycled through Nelson some few times & I do know the country around is quite attractive. I am especially pleased to know that you find it so “quiet” after W/1.
I am still keeping well but getting weary of the monotony. It has been oppressively warm for some days
[page break]
[underlined] 4. [/underlined]
but before long the thunderstorms should start. I am basing this on last September weather when occaisonally [sic] we had such big thunderstorms in the evenings. Hope I am not here to see next August terminate.
There has been somewhat of a bridge craze during the last week or so. It all began as the result of a bridge contest held recently. Tony & I breezed over the semi-final & played four hours over 3 rubbers & lost by 170 points. That was tough luck. This game makes a good diversion. I have picked up a book of Thackeray’s – “Henry Esmond” & am reading that at the moment. Finished “Gone with the Wind” ages ago & since have found a few fairly passable books. Our selection is not very good here. Not as good as Kef. I am glad to see that Dad is persevering with his pipe & I wonder what he smokes, and if he likes it. Did he buy new pipes? Tomatoes are here again & I eat quite a lot. There is no white bread, only brown & Arab. The Arab is rather like Forle. Do not know how you spell that word. Grapes are here, but are not the luxury they are in England, & do not compensate for the Roast Beef, or Mutton. Well once again the bottom of the page is reached & I must say good-bye until next letter. I am writing this one on my knee. So with the usual best wishes I will close. My thoughts are always with you both. All my love.
Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed November 5, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22552.
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