Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents
Title
Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents
Description
Reports arrival of cable and tells of sorting out problems of pre-paid return cables with Cable and Wireless company. Writes about poor summer weather but the garden still looks good and about making jam. Mentions hoping that someone recently reported missing might be with him in camp. Reminisces over past visit he made to them.
Creator
Date
1942-08-10
Spatial 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
EHudsonP-HEHudsonJD420810
Transcription
[inserted] 170 [/inserted]
[underlined] 69 [/underlined]
[inserted] 8-9-42 [/inserted]
191 Halifax Road
Nelson. Lancs.
England.
Monday a.m. Aug. 10th/42
My dear Douglas.
It has been a great joy to me to have your cable, dated Laghouat 8th, delivered by post this morning. At the same time I had a letter from Cable & Wireless from London as follows. “We thank you for your letter of the 3rd instant, & have pleasure in confirming that on June 30th we duly telegraphed the necessary authority for the acceptance of “Collect” telegrams from your son at Laghouat. In view of the notification you mention, however, we wired again on the 5th instant & have received confirmation that the necessary instructions have been repeated to the Camp Authorities at Laghouat, & we therefore trust that the arrangement will now work smoothly.” The latter sentiment I heartily endorse.
Well love it’s Monday morning again & it’s raining again – surely one of the wettest summer seasons ever. We have never had our garden tent out this year & scarcely ever have we been without a fire. The holiday week from June 25th was the best of the summer & we were fortunate indeed. Strangely enough, in spite of apparently adverse conditions “the earth bringeth forth & bud & giveth seed to the sower & bread to the eater.” The quotation is, I believe, from the eighth Psalm – one of the few remembered from school-days. To revert to the fruits of the earth – last night I gathered more raspberries & made two pounds of
[page break]
jam which looks “gradely”. From kind gifts from my neighbour (gooseberries) & the produce of our own little plot I have made as much jam as our ration for a year & we do know it is fruit & sugar. An extraordinary thing about living in this house altho’ it is a soaking wet morning the out-look is quite good. In spite of the poor weather the gardens look bright & we have hundreds of roses, pink, red & white. I am the winner in the competition for the first chrysanthemums & am very proud of my first bloom & believe it or not our apple tree has just produced six buds. Now to revert to your greetings cable. It is signed Douglas Hudson. The last three have had Douglas Hudson. Is it because you now have another Hudson in Camp? I am hoping you may have a guest named George Horne [inserted] Wireless Operator [/inserted] with you now. He was reported missing in June & his people are in great trouble. I wonder if you will remember what happened two years ago tomorrow by the day. You arrived home quite unexpectedly on 48 hours leave. It was such a short stay, you remember, in the house 11 a.m. Tues. & away again 12-30 p.m. Wednesday. Every detail returns so vividly to my mind = our little trip to the florists & my lovely roses & gladioli – our journey to town in the Rolls = all the new Sergeants on the same train = the return to the empty home. = Then the long days of waiting & wondering. Now it is a different kind of wondering & we just look forward to the days ahead when we may recapture together, joy, “& delight in simple things” Meanwhile – always all our love & thoughts & prayers are with you & our thanks for remembrance & wishes today.
Mother & Dad.
755052 Hudson
Camp Militaire
Laghouat.
Algerie.
[underlined] 69 [/underlined]
[inserted] 8-9-42 [/inserted]
191 Halifax Road
Nelson. Lancs.
England.
Monday a.m. Aug. 10th/42
My dear Douglas.
It has been a great joy to me to have your cable, dated Laghouat 8th, delivered by post this morning. At the same time I had a letter from Cable & Wireless from London as follows. “We thank you for your letter of the 3rd instant, & have pleasure in confirming that on June 30th we duly telegraphed the necessary authority for the acceptance of “Collect” telegrams from your son at Laghouat. In view of the notification you mention, however, we wired again on the 5th instant & have received confirmation that the necessary instructions have been repeated to the Camp Authorities at Laghouat, & we therefore trust that the arrangement will now work smoothly.” The latter sentiment I heartily endorse.
Well love it’s Monday morning again & it’s raining again – surely one of the wettest summer seasons ever. We have never had our garden tent out this year & scarcely ever have we been without a fire. The holiday week from June 25th was the best of the summer & we were fortunate indeed. Strangely enough, in spite of apparently adverse conditions “the earth bringeth forth & bud & giveth seed to the sower & bread to the eater.” The quotation is, I believe, from the eighth Psalm – one of the few remembered from school-days. To revert to the fruits of the earth – last night I gathered more raspberries & made two pounds of
[page break]
jam which looks “gradely”. From kind gifts from my neighbour (gooseberries) & the produce of our own little plot I have made as much jam as our ration for a year & we do know it is fruit & sugar. An extraordinary thing about living in this house altho’ it is a soaking wet morning the out-look is quite good. In spite of the poor weather the gardens look bright & we have hundreds of roses, pink, red & white. I am the winner in the competition for the first chrysanthemums & am very proud of my first bloom & believe it or not our apple tree has just produced six buds. Now to revert to your greetings cable. It is signed Douglas Hudson. The last three have had Douglas Hudson. Is it because you now have another Hudson in Camp? I am hoping you may have a guest named George Horne [inserted] Wireless Operator [/inserted] with you now. He was reported missing in June & his people are in great trouble. I wonder if you will remember what happened two years ago tomorrow by the day. You arrived home quite unexpectedly on 48 hours leave. It was such a short stay, you remember, in the house 11 a.m. Tues. & away again 12-30 p.m. Wednesday. Every detail returns so vividly to my mind = our little trip to the florists & my lovely roses & gladioli – our journey to town in the Rolls = all the new Sergeants on the same train = the return to the empty home. = Then the long days of waiting & wondering. Now it is a different kind of wondering & we just look forward to the days ahead when we may recapture together, joy, “& delight in simple things” Meanwhile – always all our love & thoughts & prayers are with you & our thanks for remembrance & wishes today.
Mother & Dad.
755052 Hudson
Camp Militaire
Laghouat.
Algerie.
Collection
Citation
P Hudson, “Letter to Douglas Hudson from his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/23769.
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