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. Writes how contents of recent Red Cross parcel helped them prepare a very good 21st birthday celebration meal and describes menu. Catches up with family and friends gossip. Mentions letter writing plans now to other recipients as this is not so difficult now as they do not have to their own stamps on mail. Comments how grateful they are to Red Cross for mail and parcels.
Creator
Date
1941-09-14
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-HE410914
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
14-9-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The last time I wrote to you was about four days ago when I acknowledged receipt of your letter of August 17th. Today I was very pleased to receive your pre-paid cable of yesterday Sept 13th reading as follows:- “Delighted six letters today all June July holiday week over both well all love” I shall reply to this as quickly as possible, probably tomorrow because at the moment I have no telegram form & shall be obliged to wait until I can get one brought in. In my last letter I told you about the Gold Flake cigarettes & food parcels received from the Red Cross. These came in very useful for the 21st Birthdays we celebrated on the 11th. As there is not very much news to relate I think I will tell you about the meal we prepared on that occasion. The first course “Hors d’ouvres” was made entirely from Red Cross supplies. It was a dish of Chicken & Ham paste cut into slices, tinned cold mixed vegetables & sardine paste on fried bread. Second course was Cornish pastry (remnant from the last Red Cross parcel) tinned peas & soup paste – all Red Cross. Third course was stew comprising food supplied by the Military, onions & further tinned soup – red Cross. Fourth course. To finish dry biscuits – our ration & cigarettes Gold Flake. Wine 6 bottles, we bought this. In short biggest & best meal since we arrived. Comments “No ill, or after effects” Yesterday I was pleased to receive a letter from Marjorie by P of W post dated Aug 4th which is not bad going. She told
[page break]
me Gordon is now a Lt. Colonel in the same place, & she does wish I could write to her, if not, include a message in a letter home. This I do only too readily & I know you will convey it by post. I send all my love & wishes and in any case as Marjorie is quite isolated I propose writing to her myself. I mentioned in my last letter that it was my intention to write a communal letter to Calverley, addressed to Grandad, he being the oldest relative. I have not carried this out yet but shall do any time now. Letter writing is not quite the problem now that it used to be, because we do not stamp our own mail as before. I have just received a telegram form so shall send off to-day the following cable in reply to yours. “Delighted cable September thirteenth latest letter received dated August seventeenth writing twice weekly well all love” this pre-paid reply is valued nearly eight francs more than the previous ones so I am trying to send two words more. The weather has become pleasant. The nights are cool & so are the days except in the actual sun. In fact at the moment I consider it ideal. Wish I could take advantage of it out and about. So John has taken up his pursuit of Dorothy again. Ted (my other bedside companion) & I were remarking to-day that if we take any women to wife we shall be nearing the 30 age limit. It hardly seems worth while. It is nearly time to make tea now. Tony & I have half a pound between us thanks to the Red X & with the aid of Tony’s powdered milk we manage quite well. The Red X have been real friends to us one way & another. Firstly, in forwarding our mail from Kef. & now by sending parcels. And now good-bye for the moment. My thoughts are always with you & I hope that everything will continue to go well. I send as before, all my love & wishes.
Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
14-9-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The last time I wrote to you was about four days ago when I acknowledged receipt of your letter of August 17th. Today I was very pleased to receive your pre-paid cable of yesterday Sept 13th reading as follows:- “Delighted six letters today all June July holiday week over both well all love” I shall reply to this as quickly as possible, probably tomorrow because at the moment I have no telegram form & shall be obliged to wait until I can get one brought in. In my last letter I told you about the Gold Flake cigarettes & food parcels received from the Red Cross. These came in very useful for the 21st Birthdays we celebrated on the 11th. As there is not very much news to relate I think I will tell you about the meal we prepared on that occasion. The first course “Hors d’ouvres” was made entirely from Red Cross supplies. It was a dish of Chicken & Ham paste cut into slices, tinned cold mixed vegetables & sardine paste on fried bread. Second course was Cornish pastry (remnant from the last Red Cross parcel) tinned peas & soup paste – all Red Cross. Third course was stew comprising food supplied by the Military, onions & further tinned soup – red Cross. Fourth course. To finish dry biscuits – our ration & cigarettes Gold Flake. Wine 6 bottles, we bought this. In short biggest & best meal since we arrived. Comments “No ill, or after effects” Yesterday I was pleased to receive a letter from Marjorie by P of W post dated Aug 4th which is not bad going. She told
[page break]
me Gordon is now a Lt. Colonel in the same place, & she does wish I could write to her, if not, include a message in a letter home. This I do only too readily & I know you will convey it by post. I send all my love & wishes and in any case as Marjorie is quite isolated I propose writing to her myself. I mentioned in my last letter that it was my intention to write a communal letter to Calverley, addressed to Grandad, he being the oldest relative. I have not carried this out yet but shall do any time now. Letter writing is not quite the problem now that it used to be, because we do not stamp our own mail as before. I have just received a telegram form so shall send off to-day the following cable in reply to yours. “Delighted cable September thirteenth latest letter received dated August seventeenth writing twice weekly well all love” this pre-paid reply is valued nearly eight francs more than the previous ones so I am trying to send two words more. The weather has become pleasant. The nights are cool & so are the days except in the actual sun. In fact at the moment I consider it ideal. Wish I could take advantage of it out and about. So John has taken up his pursuit of Dorothy again. Ted (my other bedside companion) & I were remarking to-day that if we take any women to wife we shall be nearing the 30 age limit. It hardly seems worth while. It is nearly time to make tea now. Tony & I have half a pound between us thanks to the Red X & with the aid of Tony’s powdered milk we manage quite well. The Red X have been real friends to us one way & another. Firstly, in forwarding our mail from Kef. & now by sending parcels. And now good-bye for the moment. My thoughts are always with you & I hope that everything will continue to go well. I send as before, all my love & wishes.
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/22558.
Item Relations
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