Letter from Donald Baker to his mother
Title
Letter from Donald Baker to his mother
Description
Writes that he would be leaving for Rhodesia in a couple of weeks and have option of sea or air. Mentions visiting relatives in Somerset and catches up with family news and tells of activities. Also mentions a visit to Torquay to see friends. Says everyone is astonished how well he looked. Conclude by saying he was off to Scotland the following week.
Creator
Date
1945-05-26
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Type
Format
Three page handwritten airmail letter
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
SBakerDA19210428v20172
Transcription
26.5.45
My Dearest Mother,
Heres [sic] another note to let you know that Im [sic] as fit as ever and should be leaving England for Rhodesia in a couple of weeks but will cable you exactly when just before I leave. I am told that we can have the option of going by sea or air – leaving from Brighton which is the [deleted] west [/deleted] S. African reception depot. Shall probably come by air which should only take four days.
I arrived in Castle Cary a week ago and have spent most of the time seeing all the cousins and Aunts. Am staying at Cary Hill and was very pleased to see them all again. Uncle Jack is getting pretty frail but is as cheerful and talkative as ever. Aunt Annie is still pretty active but has lost a lot of weight since I last saw her. Gave Uncle Jack a hand getting his car on its wheels again and also dug up a bit of his garden for him as it is pretty hard work for him. Auntie Ella is in good form and has a land girl who is good company for her and also seems to get through a tremendous lot of work on the farm.
[page break]
On Wednesday I hired a car [missing word] took Uncle Jack Aunt Annie & Ella into Wells. It was very disappointing to find Aunt Bess in the state she is, but she remembered me and was pleased to see us. It must be awful for her as she cannot read and the rest of the patients must be pretty poor company for her. She seemed to be fairly normal except that she is very worried and anxious and seems to have some sort of complex about the staff there treating her very indifferently.
If she could only get a few nurses to look after her at her place in Ansford she would probably be a lot better than where she is now. Although Uncle Jack and the others think she is in the best possible place.
Well after seeing Aunt Bess we called in on Mrs Russell who is truly remarkable. Her mind is as active as ever and she still takes a very live interest in everything that goes on. She was awfully pleased that I called and sends her best regards to Dad, and is also most grateful for the parcels she has received.
After that we dashed down and saw Jim Coates who looks remarkably fit and told me to tell Dad he does it on
[page break]
[missing word] Walker – He certainly is a good advertisement for it. Well we then went back to Cranlee Croft for tea and Roy, the boys & I went to the pictures in Cary
The [indecipherable word] still have their place opposite Uncle Jacks and had a good look round his garden. He is always “at it” and must be very proud of what he has made of the place.
I went down to Torquay to say hallo & good bye to the Mills. Pat the daughter is engaged to an army man who lost a leg and collected a lot of shrapnel and an M. C. in Italy. I only had two hours [deleted] and [/deleted] as all hotels were absolutely packed and came back here again for last night as there were two S. African ex PoWs who I wanted to see again.
Everyone is astounded at how well I look – probably a lot better than 4 years ago – so you can expect to see a pretty healthy looking son. – My old uniform is now too tight for me so that goes to show how much weight I’ve put on.
Leaving next week for Scotland and will then be able to nip home as soon as possible
Much love and best wishes to all
From your loving son Donald.
[page break]
BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.
[date stamp]
[postage stamp]
Mrs. C. Baker,
Charlton
Inyazura
Southern Rhodesia
S. Africa.
Sender’s name and address:-
F/LT Donald A Baker.
90 Rhodesia Hse.
429 Strand
London
My Dearest Mother,
Heres [sic] another note to let you know that Im [sic] as fit as ever and should be leaving England for Rhodesia in a couple of weeks but will cable you exactly when just before I leave. I am told that we can have the option of going by sea or air – leaving from Brighton which is the [deleted] west [/deleted] S. African reception depot. Shall probably come by air which should only take four days.
I arrived in Castle Cary a week ago and have spent most of the time seeing all the cousins and Aunts. Am staying at Cary Hill and was very pleased to see them all again. Uncle Jack is getting pretty frail but is as cheerful and talkative as ever. Aunt Annie is still pretty active but has lost a lot of weight since I last saw her. Gave Uncle Jack a hand getting his car on its wheels again and also dug up a bit of his garden for him as it is pretty hard work for him. Auntie Ella is in good form and has a land girl who is good company for her and also seems to get through a tremendous lot of work on the farm.
[page break]
On Wednesday I hired a car [missing word] took Uncle Jack Aunt Annie & Ella into Wells. It was very disappointing to find Aunt Bess in the state she is, but she remembered me and was pleased to see us. It must be awful for her as she cannot read and the rest of the patients must be pretty poor company for her. She seemed to be fairly normal except that she is very worried and anxious and seems to have some sort of complex about the staff there treating her very indifferently.
If she could only get a few nurses to look after her at her place in Ansford she would probably be a lot better than where she is now. Although Uncle Jack and the others think she is in the best possible place.
Well after seeing Aunt Bess we called in on Mrs Russell who is truly remarkable. Her mind is as active as ever and she still takes a very live interest in everything that goes on. She was awfully pleased that I called and sends her best regards to Dad, and is also most grateful for the parcels she has received.
After that we dashed down and saw Jim Coates who looks remarkably fit and told me to tell Dad he does it on
[page break]
[missing word] Walker – He certainly is a good advertisement for it. Well we then went back to Cranlee Croft for tea and Roy, the boys & I went to the pictures in Cary
The [indecipherable word] still have their place opposite Uncle Jacks and had a good look round his garden. He is always “at it” and must be very proud of what he has made of the place.
I went down to Torquay to say hallo & good bye to the Mills. Pat the daughter is engaged to an army man who lost a leg and collected a lot of shrapnel and an M. C. in Italy. I only had two hours [deleted] and [/deleted] as all hotels were absolutely packed and came back here again for last night as there were two S. African ex PoWs who I wanted to see again.
Everyone is astounded at how well I look – probably a lot better than 4 years ago – so you can expect to see a pretty healthy looking son. – My old uniform is now too tight for me so that goes to show how much weight I’ve put on.
Leaving next week for Scotland and will then be able to nip home as soon as possible
Much love and best wishes to all
From your loving son Donald.
[page break]
BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.
[date stamp]
[postage stamp]
Mrs. C. Baker,
Charlton
Inyazura
Southern Rhodesia
S. Africa.
Sender’s name and address:-
F/LT Donald A Baker.
90 Rhodesia Hse.
429 Strand
London
Collection
Citation
D A Baker, “Letter from Donald Baker to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/25776.
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