Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Reports arrival of latest mail, sorry to hear of death of acquaintance and asks condolences be passed on. Catches up on family news and gossip. Mentions cold weather with frost in the morning and reports arrival of fortnightly issue of wood which they use for cooking and making Red Cross tea and cocoa. Comments on cooking activities thanks his father for present of 100 players cigarettes. Hopes they are getting his letters and answers their query about musical instruments of which they have none.
Creator
Date
1942-01-09
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-HE420109
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
9-1-42.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The last letter I wrote to you was on January 6th and the day after I was very pleased indeed to receive four letters from you dated December 3rd. 6th. 10th & 12th also your Christmas Card. I was terribly sorry to learn of the death of Mr. Clayton & I shall write a letter of sympathy and condolence to Mrs. Clayton. If you receive this letter first will you convey to both Mrs. Clayton & John my deepest sympathies? As you said you would cable if you spent Christmas at Horsforth I presume you were unable to go. Will you thank Uncle Walter & Auntie Una for their kind enquiries and also for their greetings telegram? I hope that Uncle Walter is better & that they will get good news of Joe. I am glad that [deleted] the [/deleted] Mula have got me down in the category to which I belong. It will be the day where I can give them my old address again in England. I do hope that the apple tree Mother planted will merit the labour & will bear good fruit. I wish it might bear good tidings as well. It gives me great pleasure to learn that your “roses” are still in bloom, and I urge you both to continue keeping up your chins & spirits. The day may not be as far away as we think, when all will be well again. The profusion of beautiful flowers which grow riotously in the gardens of Laghouat according to the book “The Lightest Africa” doubtless will not appear until Spring. At present it is far too cold. Your remarks about the cold winds of January & February will be very true I should imagine. The weather is
[page break]
very cold now with bitter northerly winds & frost in the mornings. I imagine it is colder here than it was at Kef last winter, & this place is one of the hottest in North Africa in summer. Our fortnights wood supply arrived this afternoon, but we use it chiefly for cooking & making our Red Cross tea and cocoa. This afternoon Jimmy & I made four lbs marmalade. We have no sugar so used as a substitute “sucre de raisin” which is a syrup obtained from grapes. It acts as a good preservative & sweetener but alters the taste slightly. Reverting to the gardens in Laghouat. It is very probable they will be beautiful in spring because in late autumn I noticed, Oranges, Lemons, Pomegranates, Figs, Grapes, Dates etc. but there are none of these which are in any way more beautiful than an English garden & orchard. I have seen both & I know which I prefer. The only thing our country lacks is more blue sky. I thank Dad for the kindly thought of sending me the 100 Player Cigarettes which he received from the traveller as a Christmas present. Cigarettes have been received by Air Mail but I don’t know if it is very reliable. I am sure that most of your letters are arriving and I do hope that you will get mine. I always write twice a week and it is disappointing to think that they should go astray. It was comforting to receive your fairly recent telegram saying that six letters arrived on one day and I trust that this is only a preliminary to others which will follow. You ask about musical instruments. No we do not possess any in the camp but we borrowed a piano for the New Year Pantomime which was produced by some of the boys. Once again I must say good-night. As always I send all my love, thoughts and best wishes.
Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
9-1-42.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The last letter I wrote to you was on January 6th and the day after I was very pleased indeed to receive four letters from you dated December 3rd. 6th. 10th & 12th also your Christmas Card. I was terribly sorry to learn of the death of Mr. Clayton & I shall write a letter of sympathy and condolence to Mrs. Clayton. If you receive this letter first will you convey to both Mrs. Clayton & John my deepest sympathies? As you said you would cable if you spent Christmas at Horsforth I presume you were unable to go. Will you thank Uncle Walter & Auntie Una for their kind enquiries and also for their greetings telegram? I hope that Uncle Walter is better & that they will get good news of Joe. I am glad that [deleted] the [/deleted] Mula have got me down in the category to which I belong. It will be the day where I can give them my old address again in England. I do hope that the apple tree Mother planted will merit the labour & will bear good fruit. I wish it might bear good tidings as well. It gives me great pleasure to learn that your “roses” are still in bloom, and I urge you both to continue keeping up your chins & spirits. The day may not be as far away as we think, when all will be well again. The profusion of beautiful flowers which grow riotously in the gardens of Laghouat according to the book “The Lightest Africa” doubtless will not appear until Spring. At present it is far too cold. Your remarks about the cold winds of January & February will be very true I should imagine. The weather is
[page break]
very cold now with bitter northerly winds & frost in the mornings. I imagine it is colder here than it was at Kef last winter, & this place is one of the hottest in North Africa in summer. Our fortnights wood supply arrived this afternoon, but we use it chiefly for cooking & making our Red Cross tea and cocoa. This afternoon Jimmy & I made four lbs marmalade. We have no sugar so used as a substitute “sucre de raisin” which is a syrup obtained from grapes. It acts as a good preservative & sweetener but alters the taste slightly. Reverting to the gardens in Laghouat. It is very probable they will be beautiful in spring because in late autumn I noticed, Oranges, Lemons, Pomegranates, Figs, Grapes, Dates etc. but there are none of these which are in any way more beautiful than an English garden & orchard. I have seen both & I know which I prefer. The only thing our country lacks is more blue sky. I thank Dad for the kindly thought of sending me the 100 Player Cigarettes which he received from the traveller as a Christmas present. Cigarettes have been received by Air Mail but I don’t know if it is very reliable. I am sure that most of your letters are arriving and I do hope that you will get mine. I always write twice a week and it is disappointing to think that they should go astray. It was comforting to receive your fairly recent telegram saying that six letters arrived on one day and I trust that this is only a preliminary to others which will follow. You ask about musical instruments. No we do not possess any in the camp but we borrowed a piano for the New Year Pantomime which was produced by some of the boys. Once again I must say good-night. As always I send all my love, thoughts and best wishes.
Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 23, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22579.
Item Relations
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