Letter from Arthur Biscoe to his mother

Letter from Arthur Biscoe to his mother

In the letter Arthur describes his achievement becoming a pilot officer and the party afterwards. He then got 48 hours leave and went to Moose Jaw. Later he and five others ferried Tiger Moths to Saskatoon via Regina.An Anson followed and ferried them back. He then describes the food at the mess as 'really marvelous'.

1942-09-01

Four handwritten sheets

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EBiscoeAEBiscoeVWXX0901

P/O BISCOE A.E.
[deleted] c/o [/deleted] OFFICERS MESS
38 S.F.T.S.
ESTEVAN
[underlined] SEPT. 1. [/underlined]
My Very Dear Mum.
Well at last your bestest [sic] son is a fully blown pilot, and by some fluke of nature also a Pilot Officer. We had our Wings Parade on Friday at 6 o/clock, it was quite a good do, - bags of marching and saluting similar to “Captains of the Clouds” – remember, after that we went back to [deleted] camp [/deleted] billet and sewed on our wings then we went in to town for our Wings Dinner, which turned out quite well really, of course everyone was very merry later on, - I had enough wine to make my head a bit wooly [sic] for a while, but I was sober all the evening – there was only two or three of us at the end of the evening – I left the party about 2 o/clock and went back to camp, then on the following morning I was up about 5.30 and went to the station to see some of the boys off (about 20 of ‘em) then we came back to camp, signed the book to say where we could be found, and pushed off for 48 hours, - I went to Moose Jaw – had a celebration week-end, ordered my uniform from the tailors (one tunic, two pair pants, one greatcoat, one cap, :- 137 dollars thats about £33 and thats only some of it.)
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[circled 2]
Couple of days later.
Sorry I haven’t had time to [deleted] write [/deleted] finish this letter off, but five of us were asked to ferry some Tiger Moths (Elementary Trainees) from here to Saskatoon about 300 miles, and we have been busy testing the planes, and getting used to them again, (we were flying these at [indecipherable word]) well we set off this morning at about 9.45, arrived at Regina and landed for petrol about 11.30, took off again at 1 o/clock, and arrived at Saskatoon about 4 o/clock with our petrol tanks dry, an Anson followed us up, and brought us back we got back here just in time for dinner (7.45 we have late dinner now, and lunch at mid day) and talking of food, I haven’t told you about the Officers Mess yet have I – the food is really marvellous, for breakfast, - grapefruit juice, cereal (cornflakes [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] or something) then this morning either liver & bacon or eggs n bacon, toast, and tea (butter, sugar, milk, marmalade, sauce & tea pot on the table) – then for lunch either a cooked meal (like a dinner) or a cold one ham, pressed beef savoury & all the other [deleted] meal [/deleted] meats, salad, potatoes peas, beetroot etc, then desert fresh fruits, jelly custard, pies etc. etc. – Tea isn’t much, just toast & jam & tea, the dinner is a big meal, milk, soup tonight we had pork chop, apple sauce potatoes & carrots and for desert, trifle custard, plums, cantaloupe, (a miniature melon very nice) and apples. – well thats a rough idea of the type of food we’re getting here. – Really grand grub, - we’ve only had food there a couple of days, but I like it as you can guess
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[circled 3]
Then of course there’s the lounge, - a really grand room with all easy chairs, a massive stone fireplace, reading lamp writing tables, and a marvelous [sic] radio gram with an automatic record change, then in another room is a table tennis table & dart board – very nice, - and thats all there is to tell about the mess – oh, I had my first salute on Saturday, from two Waafs. – I didn’t know what the heck to do for the moment, - did I tell you that we wear a white arm band untill [sic] we get our uniform, - no-one knows what its for though – but the WAAFs did. – talk about laugh
Now after all that trash, I’ll answer your letters one by ordinary mail which took about 25 days to get here, and the other by Air Mail which took 14 days so now I’ll answer them.
Have I told you that I received the cash from Aunt May quite O.K. and already changed into Canadian [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] cash, too, - thanks a lot it’ll come in very handy, believe me.
Sorry to hear that Dad has had a cold, I hope he’s better by now, and I hope that the rest of the family are feeling fine
I’m sending some chocs home (left over from the last parcel) I’ll also send my original pair of wings for you, the ones I was presented with, also the photograph of our course, and the menus of the two dinners, [deleted] and [/deleted] one at Moose Jaw, and the Wings
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[circled 3]
Dinner, also 1 lb of butter & 1/2 lb of icing sugar, thats all I can send I’m afraid, but I’ll send another one as soon as I can

Well thats about all I can think of to tell you I’m afraid, - give my regards etc to all the folk, Aunt May, Uncle Em, Mrs Cole, Allan etc etc
So Byebye for now – take care of yourselves,
Goodnight – God bless
Tons of love to all
Arthur
XXXXX
PS. Tell Mere that I still love 'er