Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Reports arrival of first two letters for two months and catches up with news from home. Mentions he is still getting letters from 'girlfriends' and that he thinks a lot of wives taking opportunity for a spot of fun while husbands are locked up. Writes of repatriated prisoner arriving home successfully. Concludes with comment on weather.

1943-12-10

Handwritten prisoner of war letter form

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SBakerDA19210428v20135

[underlined] Kreigsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[inserted] MIT LUFTPOST [underlined] AB KAIRO [/underlined] [/inserted]
[four ink stamps]
[date stamp]
An MRS. C. BAKER
CHARLTON
Empfangsort: INYAZURA
Strasse: SOUTHERN
Kreis: RHODESIA
Land: SOUTH AFRICA.
Gebührenfrei!
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: F/O DONALD ARTHUR BAKER
Gefangenennummer: 665
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
[date stamp]
[page break]
10.12.1943
My Dearest Mother, was very pleased indeed to receive two two [sic] letters from you a few minutes ago. It has been well over two months since the last and I had begun to wonder if the system had been broken up. The letters were dated 29TH Aug. & 5 Sept. so they took rather a long time to come. Anthony also had a long spell without any mail but his has started to filter through again. Yes the Thompsons are certainly a wonderful old couple. Am surprised to hear that Herman Pope is a Sergeant as it will rather hurt his feelings that Ant and I senior to him. Our garden was not exactly a roaring success, but expect better results next year if were [sic] still here – God forbid. Surprisingly enough, the girlfriends still write but it is probably more patriotism than affection for me. There seem to be a lot of wives taking the opportunity for a spot of fun while their husbands are locked up here. A few divorces & a lot of broken engagements are on the go. It seems rather unfair as this life is difficult enough without that sort of thing happening. Am very glad I was not in love. One of the repatriees from this camp reached home safely we hear. Its just about two months since he had a cup of tea in our room the night before leaving. The snow has come for good I think. Everything looks quite pretty and it’s a change of scene to say the least. All the C. to C. fags we get are poor propaganda for Rhodesian tobacco as the quality seems to have gone right off Cheerio for now. Much love to you all your loving son
Donald