Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Terry Ford writes to his parents about having received their letter and a parcel. He is going to see an exhibition of table–tennis of the world champions, they were invited by the Duke of Kent. Terry talks about Yvonne going to a Horticulture college.

1942-04-14

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.

EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420414-0001,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420414-0002,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420414-0003,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420414-0004

1585520 AC2 Ford. T.A.
etc.
14–4– 42
Dear Mum, Dad, Yvonne & Moira,
Thank you for your letter which I received this morning. I seem to get the letters pretty quickly. I got the parcel on Saturday morning, which was good going, & it was certainly very nice.
I am writing this during a spare 1/2 hour this evening. I am going to see an exhibition of table–tennis given us by Barna & Bergmann [deleted] well [/deleted] the world champions this evening. it should be pretty good.
We were invited by the Duke of Kent yesterday [deleted] We were [/deleted] 25 of us were doing maths in the Firs Hotel when he came in. We stood to attention while he talked to the maths officer who incidentally was paralysed with fright. He then had a look round us & talked to a couple of the chaps. He looks rather older than I thought, & I was surprised to see that he is only medium size. In fact I was surprised that he is only about my height or maybe 1” taller & quite slim built.
I had a nice letter from Mrs Lawrence yesterday to which I will reply as soon as possible.
Incidentally the course [underlined] is [/underlined] still 10 weeks, in fact we have been given the exam dates. The last exam is on June 12th & we should get a weeks leave starting the day after this. The Flight commander told us not to bank
[page break]
on anything, however. The corporal who told us the course was reduced, must have been talking through his hat.
In reply to your letter, I certainly do miss the cups of tea. We had grand meals yesterday when the Duke came but it is usual to–day & there seems to be general dissatisfaction over it.
It is enough for anyone in civvy life but we all eat rather a lot & we have to spend a lot of money at the NAAFI or YMCA making up for it. We also get a break in the morning, when we have coffee & cakes at a little café nearby.
I have not received Janet & Yvonne’s letter yet so I suppose it had gone astray. I’m sorry Janet was disappointed with Roy, but perhaps he has too much on his mind.
About the money I allocated you. You could pay it into my a/c if you wanted to, as, with various deductions I only get about 12/– per week, which does not leave me much to save.
It is very good of Mrs Bladon to make the cake, & I shall certainly appreciate it.
Incidentally John was at St Edwards [deleted] schr [/deleted] school not Prince Edwards & he doesn’t know Cecil Bowles. Yes the A.G. was on the Sunderland with King Peter.
About Yvonne I do not think it would be wise to send her to a Horticulture College yet at any rate. She has no real idea of whether she’d like it or not, & it would be bad,
[page break]
if after a few weeks, she found she didn’t like it. After all its really not half as glamourous as it seems. Besides she seems to have changed her mind so often that she may want something else soon. I’m afraid I have nothing constructive to offer, but if she doesn’t want to go into an office, I shouldn’t make her. After all I hated it and started it quite willingly. She will be against if from the start, & in any case, a girls work is usually more mechanical than a man’s. I think the best system is to let things stay for a bit until it “all works out” as you say.
I will go and see Mrs Cross sometime, although I can’t really see much point in it as she probably gets fed up with seeing RAF blokes anyway.
Thank you for your letter, Dad. Yvonne & Janet, I’d rush home & dance with you now if I could, Janet, but as I can’t it’s quite safe to say it.
I’m surprised Ed Wallace hasn’t gone yet. He must be fed up.
Well I think that is about all, except that I went to see Moisiewitch at the Shakespeare Memorial Hall as an experiment on Sunday & surprisingly enough I quite enjoyed it.
I have not heard the wireless, except for snatches in the YMCA, since I left and
[page break]
I have only seen a couple of newspapers since I left. However I gather the news is not too good but no doubt it will improve in a few years time.
Well I must close now, as it is time to see the table tennis.
Love to you all.
[underlined] Terry. [/underlined]
[page break]