Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Pleased to get recent cable but disappointed that they had had no mail from him since the end of November. Goes on to include text of his reply. Mentions letters received from others and list the cables that he has sent them. Discusses the cost of prepaid replies they send. Talks of his allowance of 500 francs a month and what he spend it on. Writes that it is difficult to see what the future holds and Philosophises a bit. Says not getting on well with this letters and is not sure what the allowance for number of pages is.
Creator
Date
1942-03-16
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-HE420316
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson
c/o Consul General des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algerie.
Afrique de Nord.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It was a great pleasure to me to receive your cable yesterday of the 14th, but at the same time a disappointment to learn that you have not received any letters from me since the one dated November 25th because I continue to write to you regularly twice a week. “Your cable read as follows: -“ Delighted message fourteen eagerly await letters latest dated November 25th daffodils snowdrops bring memories all love” and I am replying today “Delighted cable fourteenth ‘photo Andrew latest letter eighteen written Mary Dorothy writing you always well all love thoughts.”. As I mentioned in my last letter I received a very good photo of Baby Andrew & a letter from Mollie dated Feb. 12th. I wrote to Mary and Dorothy about two days ago, thanking them for letters etc. received in the post. The last letter I received from you was No. 18 written on Feb. 19th the ones which have not yet arrived are Nos. 8, 11, 14, 16. I cannot quite understand your yesterday’s cable because I did not send a telegram on the fourteenth. The last one was sent off on March 2nd. The one before that I despatched on Feb. 14th which you acknowledged as the 17th. Doubtless it was detained here three days and, therefore, it is probable then that my cable of March 2nd did not leave until the 14th. I shall try and investigate. I do not know the price of sending cables from here. Your “[indecipherable word]” or prepaid replies vary in value. Recently they have been for 94 francs. To-day’s is worth 97 francs. I generally send fifteen to twenty
[page break]
words and if it comes to more than the price of the “[indecipherable word]” the French debit my account. So far it has worked fairly satisfactorily. I receive nowadays 500 francs a month from the American Consul, but I cannot tell you what the rate of exchange is. We get a ration of cigarettes from Alger and this (at the moment) comes to 76 francs a month. The money spent on letters is negligible. The balance is spent on anything that can be obtained – items which it is not worth enumerating but which all serve their small [inserted] yet [/inserted] useful purposes. I can well understand that the daffodils and snowdrops will bring memories. They appear at the time when the world, or perhaps in this sense the earth, suggests new life and hope. The time when all those who have eyes and can see [indecipherable word] what is in store for the months to come. To be a little more to the point, it is not so easy just now to foresee what is around the corner, but I am beginning to feel we shall emerge from this darkness before long into a light which will be all the brighter. This cannot last indefinitely, and as we appear to have guessed incorrectly every time so far, maybe the break will come from a source which nobody suspected. I am afraid I am making unsatisfactory progress with this letter – the real trouble lies in not having sufficient space – I don’t know what the official ‘quota’ is, but given 20 pages and no censor I could just about cope. Have just read “Women also Dream” by E. (indecipherable] & have just started another Deeping[?] “Old Wine[?] & New”. I feel that “Dream Prevails” is not in our library. My bed is outside (we have had a room swill out – Monday morning) so I shall wander along and lie in the sun now. Good-bye until next letter, as ever I send all my love, thoughts and best wishes to you both.
Douglas.
c/o Consul General des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algerie.
Afrique de Nord.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
It was a great pleasure to me to receive your cable yesterday of the 14th, but at the same time a disappointment to learn that you have not received any letters from me since the one dated November 25th because I continue to write to you regularly twice a week. “Your cable read as follows: -“ Delighted message fourteen eagerly await letters latest dated November 25th daffodils snowdrops bring memories all love” and I am replying today “Delighted cable fourteenth ‘photo Andrew latest letter eighteen written Mary Dorothy writing you always well all love thoughts.”. As I mentioned in my last letter I received a very good photo of Baby Andrew & a letter from Mollie dated Feb. 12th. I wrote to Mary and Dorothy about two days ago, thanking them for letters etc. received in the post. The last letter I received from you was No. 18 written on Feb. 19th the ones which have not yet arrived are Nos. 8, 11, 14, 16. I cannot quite understand your yesterday’s cable because I did not send a telegram on the fourteenth. The last one was sent off on March 2nd. The one before that I despatched on Feb. 14th which you acknowledged as the 17th. Doubtless it was detained here three days and, therefore, it is probable then that my cable of March 2nd did not leave until the 14th. I shall try and investigate. I do not know the price of sending cables from here. Your “[indecipherable word]” or prepaid replies vary in value. Recently they have been for 94 francs. To-day’s is worth 97 francs. I generally send fifteen to twenty
[page break]
words and if it comes to more than the price of the “[indecipherable word]” the French debit my account. So far it has worked fairly satisfactorily. I receive nowadays 500 francs a month from the American Consul, but I cannot tell you what the rate of exchange is. We get a ration of cigarettes from Alger and this (at the moment) comes to 76 francs a month. The money spent on letters is negligible. The balance is spent on anything that can be obtained – items which it is not worth enumerating but which all serve their small [inserted] yet [/inserted] useful purposes. I can well understand that the daffodils and snowdrops will bring memories. They appear at the time when the world, or perhaps in this sense the earth, suggests new life and hope. The time when all those who have eyes and can see [indecipherable word] what is in store for the months to come. To be a little more to the point, it is not so easy just now to foresee what is around the corner, but I am beginning to feel we shall emerge from this darkness before long into a light which will be all the brighter. This cannot last indefinitely, and as we appear to have guessed incorrectly every time so far, maybe the break will come from a source which nobody suspected. I am afraid I am making unsatisfactory progress with this letter – the real trouble lies in not having sufficient space – I don’t know what the official ‘quota’ is, but given 20 pages and no censor I could just about cope. Have just read “Women also Dream” by E. (indecipherable] & have just started another Deeping[?] “Old Wine[?] & New”. I feel that “Dream Prevails” is not in our library. My bed is outside (we have had a room swill out – Monday morning) so I shall wander along and lie in the sun now. Good-bye until next letter, as ever I send all my love, thoughts and best wishes to you both.
Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 11, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22641.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.