Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Letter from Terry Ford to his family

A letter from Terry Ford to his family where he writes about social and domestic events, a desire to visit the States, an improvement in the weather, the loss of one of his friends on an operation and future flying.

1943-04-06

Four handwritten sheets

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.

EFordTAFord[Fam]430406-0001,
EFordTAFord[Fam]430406-0002,
EFordTAFord[Fam]430406-0003,
EFordTAFord[Fam]430406-0004

1585520 LAC Ford
72 Course E flt TA
41 S.F.T.S.
Weyburn Sask
6 – 4 – 43
Dear All
I’m writing this to go more fully into the A.G. I wrote to–day Glad you enjoy your job Mum What about the greyhounds? So the Fish has got a rabbit eh? Are you going to eat him? When will the exam results come out?
I’ll certainly get a watch, Dad. Pocket one I suppose. You did very well at the Dogs Dad, Very interested to hear Jack Matthews is out here. He has chosen a much better time, but I hope for his sake he doesn’t come out to the Prairie.
Jack L is certainly right on Ops now. I hope he get on O.K. He must be quite experienced by now
[page break]
It still seems ages before I shall really get onto Ops. I should like to get down to the States, sometime. Apparently the chaps down there have a wizard time
Life is much more pleasant now. The [deleted] y [/deleted] weather is quite warm now & the sun has melted all the snow. There are lakes everywhere. This weather means we can now get around much more & play tennis golf etc. So as I say life is very pleasant especially as exams are finished & passed, & we only fly half a day & night, as we are starting hat now.
We had a very pleasant time in Regina. John Stockbridge & I tried to go horse riding. We went to the Regina Riding Club, to get a ride However it is a private Club so we couldn’t hire one. They let us have an old Mountie horse which was used in the Coronation in England. There was a corporal in the Mounties there &
[page break]
he told us some very interesting stuff
I have received an AG from Mrs Lawrence It was bad luck about Barbara’s Raymond wasn’t it. He & Pete May seem to have gone for a Burton on their first trip. Old Jack seems to be carrying on O.K. They say if you don’t get it in the first 5 raids you are likely to be O.K.
As I said in the A.G. I have volunteered for the reconnaissance course. My instructor says I am the bomber type anyway, so I thought I might as well learn a lot about [deleted] it [/deleted] the subject & may be get onto Beaufighters or Mosquitoes or anything
Well that’s all for now folks. Remember me to everyone.
Love
[underlined] Terry [/underlined]
P.S. I got Yvonne’s foot measurements O.K. We were invited home by the Vice President of the Regina Riding Club & given a Duck & green pea supper. Lovely!
P.P.S. over/
[page break]
We have had Income ac forms for April 6th 1942 – 43
I have only filled in my RAF pay, & under office pay have put Not Known. Also bank accounts So if they want to tax that as well they’ll probably contact the Company Incidentally I’ve just realized We get $2.25 per day here, which is 10/2 at home & I haven’t told the firm about the increase Still its not worth it now. I’ll write when I get my stripes
[page break]