Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Catches up with mail and cables received and notes that several all arrived on the same day. Discussed problem with addressing some mail which did not get sent by French post office. Reports again arrival of Canadian Red Cross parcels. Notes that Red Cross had done great job with parcels and as a result he was now able to make tea with milk again. Reminds them again that small air mail parcels do get through. He suggests that they get a new radio as a Christmas present from him.
Creator
Date
1941-11-16
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-HE411116
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
16-11-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It is about five days since I wrote to you last, and then I acknowledged receipt of your letters dated October 8th, 19th & 22nd also one from Dorothy dated September 30th, and your cable of Nov. 8th reading:- “Delighted cable thirtieth eagerly await letters none for seven weeks Prestwick anniversary to-day all love” Strangely, all these arrived on the same day, namely November 10th, and you will understand how pleased I was to receive them. I immediately wired a reply to you as follows:- “Delighted cable four letters [inserted] received [/inserted] to-day latest dated October twentyfirst writing always delay unaccountable all love” I was very annoyed to receive a cable from Berne which said that this telegram of mine had not been able to be forwarded because the address could not be traced & would I re-inform them. (Words to that effect, the cable was in French.) Accordingly on the 14th I sent a letter in French to the Post Office in Laghouat enclosing this telegram I had received from Berne and explaining that the address NELSON. LANCASHIRE had always found you, & that it was the only address, would they kindly re-transmit my message. No reply has arrived so I presume it has gone through this time. I sincerely hope so, and am very sorry if there has been much delay. I mentioned in my last letter that Nov. 10th had been a Red Letter day, for not only did I receive all the mail but also a parcel (an excellent one) from the Canadian Red Cross, containing a tin of butter, powdered milk, salmon, corned beef, juice, tea, sugar, cheese, dates raisins, etc. and a pair of trousers
[page break]
came my way from the clothes received from Tangier. You read about this in your own newspaper. In so many of my letters, which for some unaccountable reason you are not receiving, I have told you about the parcels received from the Swiss Red Cross & the Scottish Red Cross, & I have always praised them because they have proved to be so useful. It is an indescribable pleasure to be able to make tea with milk in once again, & the butter is something entirely new. In my letters nowadays I have to request such a lot because I never know if previous letters are going to reach you. I have stated so many times that small Air Mail parcels, weight about 1 lb, have been received here in 12 days & 18 days. postage 4s – 5d. If you could send me a little tea, or soap by this means it would be appreciated, & I shall willingly stand expenses. I was thinking the other day about your wireless which crackles & bangs occasionally. There is not much about it I can do out here, but it would give me a great deal of pleasure if you both would chose [sic] a new radio-gram and accept it as a belated Christmas come Mother’s birthday present from me. I realise that the wireless must be a big comfort to you these days & my credit should be in a healthy enough [deleted] t [/deleted] condition to stand the strain. I mentioned this in my last letter, but I must repeat it as deliveries are so uncertain. I forgot to tell you that a few Gold Flake, Craven “A”, Capstan & Wells Fair Ace cigarettes arrived from Tangier. I won a packet of Craven A and Gold Flake in a whist drive we held last night. My supply is well augmented, because I have already some Capstan. The weather remains cool but cloudless & very pleasant. Did a spot of running this morning. Keep fit campaign, now that my tummy is better. And so good-bye until next letter. Very best wishes for Mother’s birthday, & all my love & thoughts to you both.
Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
16-11-41.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It is about five days since I wrote to you last, and then I acknowledged receipt of your letters dated October 8th, 19th & 22nd also one from Dorothy dated September 30th, and your cable of Nov. 8th reading:- “Delighted cable thirtieth eagerly await letters none for seven weeks Prestwick anniversary to-day all love” Strangely, all these arrived on the same day, namely November 10th, and you will understand how pleased I was to receive them. I immediately wired a reply to you as follows:- “Delighted cable four letters [inserted] received [/inserted] to-day latest dated October twentyfirst writing always delay unaccountable all love” I was very annoyed to receive a cable from Berne which said that this telegram of mine had not been able to be forwarded because the address could not be traced & would I re-inform them. (Words to that effect, the cable was in French.) Accordingly on the 14th I sent a letter in French to the Post Office in Laghouat enclosing this telegram I had received from Berne and explaining that the address NELSON. LANCASHIRE had always found you, & that it was the only address, would they kindly re-transmit my message. No reply has arrived so I presume it has gone through this time. I sincerely hope so, and am very sorry if there has been much delay. I mentioned in my last letter that Nov. 10th had been a Red Letter day, for not only did I receive all the mail but also a parcel (an excellent one) from the Canadian Red Cross, containing a tin of butter, powdered milk, salmon, corned beef, juice, tea, sugar, cheese, dates raisins, etc. and a pair of trousers
[page break]
came my way from the clothes received from Tangier. You read about this in your own newspaper. In so many of my letters, which for some unaccountable reason you are not receiving, I have told you about the parcels received from the Swiss Red Cross & the Scottish Red Cross, & I have always praised them because they have proved to be so useful. It is an indescribable pleasure to be able to make tea with milk in once again, & the butter is something entirely new. In my letters nowadays I have to request such a lot because I never know if previous letters are going to reach you. I have stated so many times that small Air Mail parcels, weight about 1 lb, have been received here in 12 days & 18 days. postage 4s – 5d. If you could send me a little tea, or soap by this means it would be appreciated, & I shall willingly stand expenses. I was thinking the other day about your wireless which crackles & bangs occasionally. There is not much about it I can do out here, but it would give me a great deal of pleasure if you both would chose [sic] a new radio-gram and accept it as a belated Christmas come Mother’s birthday present from me. I realise that the wireless must be a big comfort to you these days & my credit should be in a healthy enough [deleted] t [/deleted] condition to stand the strain. I mentioned this in my last letter, but I must repeat it as deliveries are so uncertain. I forgot to tell you that a few Gold Flake, Craven “A”, Capstan & Wells Fair Ace cigarettes arrived from Tangier. I won a packet of Craven A and Gold Flake in a whist drive we held last night. My supply is well augmented, because I have already some Capstan. The weather remains cool but cloudless & very pleasant. Did a spot of running this morning. Keep fit campaign, now that my tummy is better. And so good-bye until next letter. Very best wishes for Mother’s birthday, & all my love & thoughts to you both.
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/22572.
Item Relations
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