Letter to Donald Baker from his mother
Title
Letter to Donald Baker from his mother
Description
Writes she had had no letter from him since 24 June. Comments on how long war might go on. Wonders how he is and what weather is like. Writes that they were having a nice holiday in Cape Town and catches up with family news and talks about their health issues. Continues with family news and gossip.
Creator
Date
1944-11-27
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page handwritten letter and envelope
Publisher
Rights
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.
Contributor
Identifier
SBakerDA19210428v20169
Transcription
From Mrs C. Baker
Inyazura
S. Rhodesia
Monday
November 27th 1944
Hotel Esplanade
Sea Point
Cape Town
South Africa.
F/O R. A. BAKER,
British Prisoner of war,
P.o.w. No. 665,
Stalagluft III, Germany.
My very Dear Donald, Another week gone, no letter from you, the last one written on the 24th June, but I am hoping there will be some from you when we get home.
Well the war still goes on, the news one day, makes one hope a week or so will see the end of it, but the next day, nothing doing, but of course it does get nearer the end doesn’t it.
I wonder how you are, and how the weather is, do hope it is not too bad, and bearable, generally it is not too bad till after Christmas in Europe is it, and please God you will be out of it by that time
We are having quite a nice holiday here though on the cool side most of the time, it is nice walking about and the sea as lovely as ever of course. Dads corns are bad so he has gone into town this morning to the chiropodist. He has not done that before but always cut them himself, hope they will be alright now. When we were down here two years ago I fell down in the blackout and hurt my knee, it still
[page break]
is a bit painful when I walk a lot and I get Rhuematism [sic] quite a bit at times, but on the whole we keep pretty well for our age. dad will be 72 on Saturday and I 63 next Wednesday, no doubt you will see a difference in us, the snow has drifted on our heads a bit, since the war started. Jack and family arrive in Cape Town tomorrow, they will be staying at the Mimosa which is just opposite the pavilion. Jack was 38 yesterday getting along ok. Wonder how Franie will be she is such a temperamental creature isnt [sic] she. We went to see Isobel, yesterday Aunt Kates daughter. She is married to a man at least 20 years older than herself. She I think is another difficult person to live with
No letters from Rhodesia this week. Hope they have had good rains for planting the tobacco. Harry said the maize was looking up alright when he wrote last. I told you in my last weeks letter we leave here on Sunday for home again, expect we shall have a couple of days in Salisbury on our way back. Dads nose not quite healed up yet, so may have another go of Radium. It just looks like a little pimple on the side of his nose and is not painful
Much love my dear son, from Dad and your loving mother.
[page break]
[underlined] PRISONER OF WAR POST [/underlined]
[underlined] KRIEGSGEFANGENENPOST. [/underlined]
[postmark]
[inserted] This letter, recovered by [indecipherable word] Forces, is undeliverable as [indecipherable word] [/inserted]
F/O Ronald A. [underlined] BAKER [/underlined],
BRITISH PRISONER OF WAR,
PRISONER OF WAR NUMBER 665,
STALAGLUFT III,
GERMANY.
[page break]
Mrs. C. Baker,
Cleareton,
Imyazma,
S. Rhodesia.
South Africa.
[censor label]
[inserted] TO [/inserted]
[inserted] Inyazura [/inserted]
[ink stamp] THIS LETTER FORMED PART OF UNDELIVERED MAILS [several indecipherable words] THE HANDS OF THE [several indecipherable words] IT IS [several indecipherable words] AND IS THEREFORE [two indecipherable words] TO YOU [/ink stamp]
[postmark]
[censor label]
Inyazura
S. Rhodesia
Monday
November 27th 1944
Hotel Esplanade
Sea Point
Cape Town
South Africa.
F/O R. A. BAKER,
British Prisoner of war,
P.o.w. No. 665,
Stalagluft III, Germany.
My very Dear Donald, Another week gone, no letter from you, the last one written on the 24th June, but I am hoping there will be some from you when we get home.
Well the war still goes on, the news one day, makes one hope a week or so will see the end of it, but the next day, nothing doing, but of course it does get nearer the end doesn’t it.
I wonder how you are, and how the weather is, do hope it is not too bad, and bearable, generally it is not too bad till after Christmas in Europe is it, and please God you will be out of it by that time
We are having quite a nice holiday here though on the cool side most of the time, it is nice walking about and the sea as lovely as ever of course. Dads corns are bad so he has gone into town this morning to the chiropodist. He has not done that before but always cut them himself, hope they will be alright now. When we were down here two years ago I fell down in the blackout and hurt my knee, it still
[page break]
is a bit painful when I walk a lot and I get Rhuematism [sic] quite a bit at times, but on the whole we keep pretty well for our age. dad will be 72 on Saturday and I 63 next Wednesday, no doubt you will see a difference in us, the snow has drifted on our heads a bit, since the war started. Jack and family arrive in Cape Town tomorrow, they will be staying at the Mimosa which is just opposite the pavilion. Jack was 38 yesterday getting along ok. Wonder how Franie will be she is such a temperamental creature isnt [sic] she. We went to see Isobel, yesterday Aunt Kates daughter. She is married to a man at least 20 years older than herself. She I think is another difficult person to live with
No letters from Rhodesia this week. Hope they have had good rains for planting the tobacco. Harry said the maize was looking up alright when he wrote last. I told you in my last weeks letter we leave here on Sunday for home again, expect we shall have a couple of days in Salisbury on our way back. Dads nose not quite healed up yet, so may have another go of Radium. It just looks like a little pimple on the side of his nose and is not painful
Much love my dear son, from Dad and your loving mother.
[page break]
[underlined] PRISONER OF WAR POST [/underlined]
[underlined] KRIEGSGEFANGENENPOST. [/underlined]
[postmark]
[inserted] This letter, recovered by [indecipherable word] Forces, is undeliverable as [indecipherable word] [/inserted]
F/O Ronald A. [underlined] BAKER [/underlined],
BRITISH PRISONER OF WAR,
PRISONER OF WAR NUMBER 665,
STALAGLUFT III,
GERMANY.
[page break]
Mrs. C. Baker,
Cleareton,
Imyazma,
S. Rhodesia.
South Africa.
[censor label]
[inserted] TO [/inserted]
[inserted] Inyazura [/inserted]
[ink stamp] THIS LETTER FORMED PART OF UNDELIVERED MAILS [several indecipherable words] THE HANDS OF THE [several indecipherable words] IT IS [several indecipherable words] AND IS THEREFORE [two indecipherable words] TO YOU [/ink stamp]
[postmark]
[censor label]
Collection
Citation
C Baker, “Letter to Donald Baker from his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 27, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/25774.
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