Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents
Title
Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents
Description
Reports arrival of seven letters from him; latest from 21 November all from Laghouat. Notes a gap from 17 September to 22 October with no letters. Joy to know he is in good conditions in new camp and allowed out into town. Mentions book they got from library about Laghouat from which they obtained information about his locale. Writes about possibly sending parcel by airmail but allowed commodities are in short supply. Catches up with news and gossip.
Creator
Date
1942-01-25
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Two page handwritten letter and envelope
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
EHudsonP-HEHudsonJD420125
Transcription
Prisoners of War Post
[inserted] 110 [/inserted]
[BY AIR MAIL stamp]
[postmark]
[two postage stamps]
[postmark]
755052 Sgt. J. D. Hudson
Interned British Airman
Camp Militaire
Laghouat
Algerie
Afrique du Nord.
[page break]
From
Mrs Hudson
191 Halifax Road
Nelson
Lancs.
England
25/[missing numbers]
[inserted] 19-2-42 [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 110 [/inserted]
[underlined] 9 [/underlined]
191 Halifax Road
Nelson Lancs.
England.
Sunday night 25/1/42
My dear Douglas
Yesterday was truly a red letter day. We had seven letters from you with dates from October 22nd 26th 30th Nov 4th 7th 11th & 21st. That means that there is a gap from September 17th to Oct 22nd without any letters from you. I gather that you have made one or two requests which have failed to reach us but we are so very thankful for these seven letters, all from Laghouat – the first messages from there. It is a great joy to us to know that you are in good conditions & that you are able to enjoy a little privacy. We were pleased to learn that you were allowed to visit the town & the Arab Mosque & to admire the view from the Minaret. You will know by now that we were able to get a book from the library which was a story of Laghouat. So we seem to picture very vividly the place in which you are living, especially as the book had many illustrations, including one of the Barracks. I don’t remember any reference to 43-000 palm trees but there was a picture of a daya at Laghouat. We should, no doubt, call it a shrubbery. You mention the water supply & wonder whence it cometh. I seem to remember reading that the supply
[page break]
comes from the river which flows practically through the town & we wondered what would happen if a long drought occurred. At any rate we are thankful to have such cheerful news from you at long last. The time has seemed very long but we’ve been glad to know that you’ve been getting our letters fairly well. Now love about sending you a parcel by Air Mail. I’ll see what I can do about it but commodities are scarce here. My weekly ration of chocolate is a 2 oz block so I will save them & try to send you a small parcel as soon as possible. I could let you have tea from my small stock but I doubt whether it would be allowed. Soap I have in plenty & may try to get a tablet or two to you just as a start.
Dad went out at 7-15 so I am on my own again & just at the moment am listening to an old record of Dame Nellie Melba singing “Home Sweet Home” & now Big Ben is striking 9 oclock & the news is being given. It is very sad news & caused much sorrow & anxiety to us all. It seems such a sad thing that in this [underlined] beautiful [/underlined] world there should be such futile devastation & suffering. The very severe wintry weather is now over & most of the ice has gone from “the lake” & there is now very little snow left on the surrounding country. The announcement about the gift of clothing to your camp at Aumale was in the Sunday Chronicle & I wrote & told you about it at the time tho’ it appears the letter failed to reach you. The cutting is here, with others, which will be of interest to you on your return home. How we do long for that day!! Now, love, my paper is used again so Goodnight & God bless you always. All our love & thoughts from Mother & Dad.
755052 Hudson
Camp Militaire
Laghouat Algerie.
[inserted] 110 [/inserted]
[BY AIR MAIL stamp]
[postmark]
[two postage stamps]
[postmark]
755052 Sgt. J. D. Hudson
Interned British Airman
Camp Militaire
Laghouat
Algerie
Afrique du Nord.
[page break]
From
Mrs Hudson
191 Halifax Road
Nelson
Lancs.
England
25/[missing numbers]
[inserted] 19-2-42 [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 110 [/inserted]
[underlined] 9 [/underlined]
191 Halifax Road
Nelson Lancs.
England.
Sunday night 25/1/42
My dear Douglas
Yesterday was truly a red letter day. We had seven letters from you with dates from October 22nd 26th 30th Nov 4th 7th 11th & 21st. That means that there is a gap from September 17th to Oct 22nd without any letters from you. I gather that you have made one or two requests which have failed to reach us but we are so very thankful for these seven letters, all from Laghouat – the first messages from there. It is a great joy to us to know that you are in good conditions & that you are able to enjoy a little privacy. We were pleased to learn that you were allowed to visit the town & the Arab Mosque & to admire the view from the Minaret. You will know by now that we were able to get a book from the library which was a story of Laghouat. So we seem to picture very vividly the place in which you are living, especially as the book had many illustrations, including one of the Barracks. I don’t remember any reference to 43-000 palm trees but there was a picture of a daya at Laghouat. We should, no doubt, call it a shrubbery. You mention the water supply & wonder whence it cometh. I seem to remember reading that the supply
[page break]
comes from the river which flows practically through the town & we wondered what would happen if a long drought occurred. At any rate we are thankful to have such cheerful news from you at long last. The time has seemed very long but we’ve been glad to know that you’ve been getting our letters fairly well. Now love about sending you a parcel by Air Mail. I’ll see what I can do about it but commodities are scarce here. My weekly ration of chocolate is a 2 oz block so I will save them & try to send you a small parcel as soon as possible. I could let you have tea from my small stock but I doubt whether it would be allowed. Soap I have in plenty & may try to get a tablet or two to you just as a start.
Dad went out at 7-15 so I am on my own again & just at the moment am listening to an old record of Dame Nellie Melba singing “Home Sweet Home” & now Big Ben is striking 9 oclock & the news is being given. It is very sad news & caused much sorrow & anxiety to us all. It seems such a sad thing that in this [underlined] beautiful [/underlined] world there should be such futile devastation & suffering. The very severe wintry weather is now over & most of the ice has gone from “the lake” & there is now very little snow left on the surrounding country. The announcement about the gift of clothing to your camp at Aumale was in the Sunday Chronicle & I wrote & told you about it at the time tho’ it appears the letter failed to reach you. The cutting is here, with others, which will be of interest to you on your return home. How we do long for that day!! Now, love, my paper is used again so Goodnight & God bless you always. All our love & thoughts from Mother & Dad.
755052 Hudson
Camp Militaire
Laghouat Algerie.
Collection
Citation
P Hudson, “Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/23535.
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