Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Terry writes to his parents about his journey to his posting at RAF Dalcross.

1943-10-04

Three 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]431004-0001,
EFordTAFord[Fam]431004-0002,
EFordTAFord[Fam]431004-0003

On the Train
Monday 4-10-43

Dear Folks

My future address is Officers Mess, RAF Station, Dalcross, Invernesshire, Scotland. It is about 10 miles East of Inverness & is, as you can see, just about as far north as a ‘drome could be. I feel almost as if I’m going abroad, as this will be entirely new country for me – should be rather interesting.

All four of us are together. We have to spend to-night in Perth. We charge expenses at the other end, so we don’t intend to go without. Have just had a 4/6d breakfast in an hotel in Crewe. Wasn’t worth it though.

I got to Temple Meads by five to twelve without any

[page break]

trouble. John Cox arrived O.K. as his father got some petrol from the Board as he said a taxi would use up more than he would.

Some diversion was caused by a little negro sailor who was so drunk he found the platform wasn’t wide enough for him & he fell off onto the lines twice. A policeman there didn’t seem at all interested. When the train came in he said to us that “There are [deleted] some [/deleted] probably some more, about 5[?] in fact, negro sailors lying on the lines somewhere & he went off to look for them with his lantern.

We had bags of room on the train & on getting to Crewe caught a train at 6.40 to Nantwich, & got a lift from there to the camp, where a very good breakfast awaited us.

[page break]

Bacon, fried eggs & tomatoes, a very pleasant surprise.

My cold is getting better. Practically everyone seems to have one.

All for now.
Much love
Terry

[page break]