Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Catches up on mail sent and received and noted some missing from sequence. Noted telegrams sent/received , one of which was birthday greetings to his father, hoped he would be home for the next one. Exchanged gossip and mentioned weather cooler and commented generally on climate compared to England, which while hotter, houses built to withstand heat. Mentioned some activities including boxing and medicine ball throwing as well as some comments on flies and mosquitoes.
Creator
Date
1941-09-03
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-HE410903
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
3-9-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It is not very difficult to go back two years to-day; little did I think then that I should be in the position I am now. I was very pleased to receive your letter dated Aug. 3rd on the 28th, that is the only letter I have received since I wrote to you last about 5 days ago. I am pleased you received a letter from me of July 10th & I wonder what has happened to all the letters written in between May 11th & that date. I expect they will arrive in due course by some round about route, and I can assure you that I have written nearly twice a week all the time. In my last letter I mentioned that I had received all your telegrams and had replied to them all, but of course this is stale news as the replies themselves prove all this to you. My last cable sent a few days ago included best wishes for Dad’s birthday and as the day is drawing near my thoughts seem to become more intense if you understand what I mean. How I hope I may be home when the next one comes round. I was also pleased to hear you heard from your old friend the Vicar. Yes I suppose what he said was true but times certainly do change, & what was yesterday is not necessarily the same to-day. For some days now it has been considerably cooler & it does not appear to be anything like so warm as it was upon our arrival just over 12 months ago, unless it is that we are accustomed to the heat having passed all the summer here. The sun still shines all day long & since May we have not had half an hour’s rain, not that we benefit in any way. The
[page break]
times I have prayed for a fine day in England & to think that we get about 300 such fine days out of the 365 here. What a gross waste. Thank you for your “congrats” on my culinary success. I made the most of those opportunities it is true. Yes I took part in the boxing contest, sing songs “and all”. The boxing gloves are getting rather worn & a screwed punch leaves a good scar. There has not been any boxing enthusiasm for some weeks, probably on account of the weather. To-day in particular I feel extremely stiff. For 3 mornings in succession I have done a lot of medicine ball throwing (ie. a football filled with compressed paper) & it certainly gets all the muscles. There is not a great deal else one can do to prevent going soft. The flies are quickly dwindling & are not anything like the plague they were in Kef. This place is cleaner. Yes it is true there are no mosquitoes, or malaria here. I think that from the climatic point of view, probably with the exception of July & Aug, having spent 12 months here, you would find it pleasant enough. It is much hotter than England but you would get used to it. The houses are built & painted to withstand the heat of summer. The early spring & autumn is exceptionally pleasant, & winter in the high parts is quite bracing. With freedom doubtless a happy place for colonists. I won another prize in our latest spelling Bee against the Officers in spite of the fact that I spelled crustaceous with an “ious”. Happy consolation that this month is not the anxious time it was a year ago. May you be spared any recurrence of such a wearying period. So with this to cheer us I will bring this letter to a close. I believe the mail only goes once a week now, but I shall write twice. If two letters arrive together it doesn’t matter much. With every best wish, I send you both all my love, Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
3-9-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It is not very difficult to go back two years to-day; little did I think then that I should be in the position I am now. I was very pleased to receive your letter dated Aug. 3rd on the 28th, that is the only letter I have received since I wrote to you last about 5 days ago. I am pleased you received a letter from me of July 10th & I wonder what has happened to all the letters written in between May 11th & that date. I expect they will arrive in due course by some round about route, and I can assure you that I have written nearly twice a week all the time. In my last letter I mentioned that I had received all your telegrams and had replied to them all, but of course this is stale news as the replies themselves prove all this to you. My last cable sent a few days ago included best wishes for Dad’s birthday and as the day is drawing near my thoughts seem to become more intense if you understand what I mean. How I hope I may be home when the next one comes round. I was also pleased to hear you heard from your old friend the Vicar. Yes I suppose what he said was true but times certainly do change, & what was yesterday is not necessarily the same to-day. For some days now it has been considerably cooler & it does not appear to be anything like so warm as it was upon our arrival just over 12 months ago, unless it is that we are accustomed to the heat having passed all the summer here. The sun still shines all day long & since May we have not had half an hour’s rain, not that we benefit in any way. The
[page break]
times I have prayed for a fine day in England & to think that we get about 300 such fine days out of the 365 here. What a gross waste. Thank you for your “congrats” on my culinary success. I made the most of those opportunities it is true. Yes I took part in the boxing contest, sing songs “and all”. The boxing gloves are getting rather worn & a screwed punch leaves a good scar. There has not been any boxing enthusiasm for some weeks, probably on account of the weather. To-day in particular I feel extremely stiff. For 3 mornings in succession I have done a lot of medicine ball throwing (ie. a football filled with compressed paper) & it certainly gets all the muscles. There is not a great deal else one can do to prevent going soft. The flies are quickly dwindling & are not anything like the plague they were in Kef. This place is cleaner. Yes it is true there are no mosquitoes, or malaria here. I think that from the climatic point of view, probably with the exception of July & Aug, having spent 12 months here, you would find it pleasant enough. It is much hotter than England but you would get used to it. The houses are built & painted to withstand the heat of summer. The early spring & autumn is exceptionally pleasant, & winter in the high parts is quite bracing. With freedom doubtless a happy place for colonists. I won another prize in our latest spelling Bee against the Officers in spite of the fact that I spelled crustaceous with an “ious”. Happy consolation that this month is not the anxious time it was a year ago. May you be spared any recurrence of such a wearying period. So with this to cheer us I will bring this letter to a close. I believe the mail only goes once a week now, but I shall write twice. If two letters arrive together it doesn’t matter much. With every best wish, I send you both 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/22555.
Item Relations
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