Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Letter from Terry Ford to his family

Terry Ford writes home describing aspects his service, personal and social life.

1942-09-07

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-M420907-0001,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420907-0002,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420907-0003,
EFordTAFordAG-[Mrs]-Y-M420907-0004

[RAF crest]
1585520 LAC Ford T.A.
Hut 21 “J’ Flight,
2, Sqdn, RAF,
Heaton Park,
Manchester.
7-9-42.

Dear Mum, Dad, Yvonne & Maria,
Thank you very much for the scarf & letter. The scarf will be just the thing for flying, & crossing the briny.

I’m very pleased indeed to hear about Yvonne. It seems just the thing, & if she really likes farming, she should enjoy it very much. It seems as though things are “working their way out” again, mum. Anyway the best of luck to you, Yvonne. (I suppose she has started now)

I hope little feety got on all right with her teeth. They don’t hurt much, & it only lasted for a second anyway.

[page break]

I’m sorry I troubled you about the identity discs, as I have found them in my haversack.

That income tax is a blooming nuisance. The only way I can pay it is out of the bank, so if I can’t get home again, I can’t pay them. They’ve had it.

Perhaps, dad could enquire at the office to see if I do really pay that, as I pay 5/6 a week from my Air Force pay now.

If I do owe it, the best thing to do, according to chaps here is to write “In H.M. Forces” across it & return it.

I’m enclosing a copy of a booklet being sold to us here. It gives quite a good idea of life here, although that about discipline being strict is tripe.

I went to John’s house for a few hours yesterday, which was very

[page break]

[RAF crest]

nice. We had two poached eggs, tomatoes, etc for tea.

A gang of us went to Belle Vue on Saturday evening & had a very good time. We went on the Bobs (terrific, things [diagram] travel at great speed.) We then went to the speedway which cost us 7d each. It was very good.

We have played cards a lot lately as we get a lot of spare time, as we scrounge off a lot. I lost about 3/6 in four days, but won 4/6 on Saturday afternoon. We have got tired of it now.

There are a lot of postings in the air at the moment, & quite

[page break]

a few chaps have gone to train as flying-boat pilots.

We still don’t know when we are going, but I don’t think it will be for a week or too [sic]. still no-one knows.

I won’t end any washing off to you, as we don’t get much notice of posting, so I will wash the stuff myself.

There are some American Air Force mechanics in Manchester. I don’t know if they are civil or army, but they look like a circus, with cowboy hats, high-heeled decorated boots, sky blue silk suits with colossal “wings” on them. They also wear a very flashy line in civvy suits.

Please remember me to everyone. I will write as soon as I hear of a posting, if I can, but “Next of Kin” made quite an impression on me.

Love.

Terry.

P.S. Don’t show the book around as I shouldn’t send it home.

[page break]