Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Letter from Donald Baker to his mother

Reports arrival of latest letters and catches up with news from home. Writes that his Christmas had not been very merry but they had had a good meal [two sections are blacked out by censor]. Mentions choir recital and church service.

1944-12-25

Handwritten prisoner of war letter form

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SBakerDA19210428v20161

[underlined] Kreigsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[ink stamp]
[date stamp]
An MRS C. BAKER
CHARLTON
Emfangsort: INYAZURA
Strasse: S. RHODESIA
Kreis: SOUTH
Land: AFRICA
[two ink stamps]
Gebührenfrei!
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: F/LT DONALD ARTHUR BAKER
Gefangenennummer: 665
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
[circled B]
[page break]
25.12.1944
My Dearest Mother, Was very glad indeed to have two letters from you this month Oct 1st & 15th. Am pleased to hear that you were receiving a fair amount of mail from me again after that long wait. I expect Harry feels pretty “sore” at that kaffir [indecipherable name] for losing the pet bull – do hope the police have managed to trace it. Well as you see this is Xmas night – it hasn’t been a particularly Merry one but we had the satisfaction of a very good meal – Couland Cooper and self cooked the one for our room of twelve, and believe me its some job cooking a big meal [censored words]. However we turned out a pretty good meal of turkey & Xmas puddings from American parcels, which seemed to satisfy the roommates in fact half of us could not finish it. There was really no more than the usual meal at home so I expect [censored words] the camp choir sing Handels “Messiah” the night before last
About 60 people in the choir & it sounded very fine with the orchestral accompaniment. Went to church this morning held in our theatre – the parson was very poor in my opinion so I spent most of the time thinking of you people at the S Y church listening to Canon Floyd. Give my regards to him. Well dear mother you must be so disappointed that Im [sic] not home yet but we can only hope it won’t be long. Am keeping fit as ever and pretty cheerful. Love & best wishes to the family
Your loving son Donald