Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Notes arrival of latest letter and arrival of a selection of books with which he is very pleased. Comments on books and says he will send list in next letter which he will dispatch by registered airmail. Writes of acquaintance who is still missing with no news. Catches up with news and discusses content of letters. Mentions recent concert had to run for four nights to cater for numbers. Mentions having a good time and sleeping outside as well as getting on with roommates whereas some others in camp have fallen out.
Creator
Date
1942-10-13
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-HE421013-01
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord
Oct 13th 1942.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The latest letter I received from you was No. 78 which came on the 10th. To-day, I was very delighted to receive a selection of books from Penguins. They sent thirteen altogether, short stories, novels and biographies – one a [deleted] auto [/deleted] biography of Shakespeare – and a book of poems of the last century. A much better selection than I anticipated judging by your comments in an earlier letter advising me that Smiths were sending [symbol] Wild West stories & Thrillers. I very much appreciate these & I do hope you will forgive my remarks in an earlier letter when I ran down the girl who suggested such a collection [symbol] They have turned out very satisfactory but poor old Jimmy received a ridiculous lot by the same mail such as “Kinsman’s Creek” & “Frontier Justice” he is very disappointed. However, I hope to give you a list of all my books in my next letter, which I am trying to send by Regd. Airmail. Let us hope it will be as successful on its journey as was the last. As far as I can tell at the moment, your second Red Cross clothes parcel has arrived and is at the French Bureau. Probably by the time I have finished this letter it will be delivered to me. Many are already in their owners hands. Quite a big batch came down. I am very sorry to still learn that no news has as yet been received about Ted Hole. I am just as anxious as you are to hear that he is all right. I do trust that soon Mr. & Mrs. Hole may have reassuring information. [underlined] We [/underlined] understand only too well how they feel. It is better news that tells me Uncle Jim is getting benefit from his
[page break]
less strenuous days of retirement. I hope he will continue to remain in an improved state of health. As you remark he will be able to help Auntie M. when Uncle K. is difficult. What a problem! But we all have problems these days & it is our task to solve them although so often the tasks appear to be insurmountable. I have been thinking quite a lot recently about home & I have wished so very very [sic] often that Dad could enjoy the facilities that Uncle Jim is now privileged to take advantage of. It will come one day. No. I do not know why your letter of June 12th should not meet with the censor’s approval. I feel, as you remark, that you would not write anything that may be of value to Jerry in his desperate situation. But there you are. Our concert party has just given a concert. Very similar to the last one under the same title “Bow Bells” & with practically the same cast. Only this time it had to be run for four nights to cater for the enlarged Audience. Our small room turned out in its force of five & had a good time especially behind the “stage” when the show was over. I later turned my bedding outside and slept under the stars. Yes we had a good time & you weren’t catching me risking a night afterward on the top of our two-decker wooden bed. Quite a number of chaps have been known to fall out & it is a good drop of five feet to the ground. Summer is wearing itself out & the weather is consequently a lot more pleasant. Still very very [sic] hot as compared with English summers but bearable after the intense heat of June/July/Aug & early September here. More conducive to sunbathing but still really too hot to attempt lying outside, all right to walk about. I must say “au-revoir” now, until next letter which I hope will make another speedy journey. All my love & thoughts to you both, always. Douglas.
c/o. Consul Général des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord
Oct 13th 1942.
My Dear Mother & Dad,
The latest letter I received from you was No. 78 which came on the 10th. To-day, I was very delighted to receive a selection of books from Penguins. They sent thirteen altogether, short stories, novels and biographies – one a [deleted] auto [/deleted] biography of Shakespeare – and a book of poems of the last century. A much better selection than I anticipated judging by your comments in an earlier letter advising me that Smiths were sending [symbol] Wild West stories & Thrillers. I very much appreciate these & I do hope you will forgive my remarks in an earlier letter when I ran down the girl who suggested such a collection [symbol] They have turned out very satisfactory but poor old Jimmy received a ridiculous lot by the same mail such as “Kinsman’s Creek” & “Frontier Justice” he is very disappointed. However, I hope to give you a list of all my books in my next letter, which I am trying to send by Regd. Airmail. Let us hope it will be as successful on its journey as was the last. As far as I can tell at the moment, your second Red Cross clothes parcel has arrived and is at the French Bureau. Probably by the time I have finished this letter it will be delivered to me. Many are already in their owners hands. Quite a big batch came down. I am very sorry to still learn that no news has as yet been received about Ted Hole. I am just as anxious as you are to hear that he is all right. I do trust that soon Mr. & Mrs. Hole may have reassuring information. [underlined] We [/underlined] understand only too well how they feel. It is better news that tells me Uncle Jim is getting benefit from his
[page break]
less strenuous days of retirement. I hope he will continue to remain in an improved state of health. As you remark he will be able to help Auntie M. when Uncle K. is difficult. What a problem! But we all have problems these days & it is our task to solve them although so often the tasks appear to be insurmountable. I have been thinking quite a lot recently about home & I have wished so very very [sic] often that Dad could enjoy the facilities that Uncle Jim is now privileged to take advantage of. It will come one day. No. I do not know why your letter of June 12th should not meet with the censor’s approval. I feel, as you remark, that you would not write anything that may be of value to Jerry in his desperate situation. But there you are. Our concert party has just given a concert. Very similar to the last one under the same title “Bow Bells” & with practically the same cast. Only this time it had to be run for four nights to cater for the enlarged Audience. Our small room turned out in its force of five & had a good time especially behind the “stage” when the show was over. I later turned my bedding outside and slept under the stars. Yes we had a good time & you weren’t catching me risking a night afterward on the top of our two-decker wooden bed. Quite a number of chaps have been known to fall out & it is a good drop of five feet to the ground. Summer is wearing itself out & the weather is consequently a lot more pleasant. Still very very [sic] hot as compared with English summers but bearable after the intense heat of June/July/Aug & early September here. More conducive to sunbathing but still really too hot to attempt lying outside, all right to walk about. I must say “au-revoir” now, until next letter which I hope will make another speedy journey. All my love & thoughts to you both, always. Douglas.
Collection
Citation
J D Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22881.
Item Relations
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