Letter from Wally Layne to his wife

Letter from Wally Layne to his wife

Describes arriving a new location near Doncaster and that he might be moved closer soon. Comments on recent holiday and looks forward to the next one. Mentions supply of cigarettes and writes of his activities. Discusses what she might do if called up.

1941-07-04

Five page handwritten letter

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ELayneWHLayneAJ410704

Sgts Mess.

RAF. Lindholme
Nr Doncaster
July 4/41

My dearest one,

I arrived here O.K. and seem to be settling down all right, I have met one or two people I know but none of my particular circle of friends, Jacko hasn’t turned up, he must have gone somewhere else, no one seemed to know I was coming, everyone I have reported to this morning asked me if I was better, the general impression seems to be that I have been sick somewhere or other and are about a month late in arriving.

I have some good news for you, we are leaving here and going to another place, it will be a lot nearer to where you are, I dont suppose I should say where it is in a letter, but if I say

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it is near where your cousin Peter lives you will have a good idea of the district, I shall be a lot nearer to you I am glad to say, we move in about a fortnights time.

This place is rather in the wilds, Doncaster is about eleven miles away, Hatfield is the nearest place and it is [one deleted word] a village. The flying crews are billeted out but I have a room in the mess and hope to keep it.

I was going to write to you last night but I didn’t have any paper, it is a good job really as I felt awfully miserable and the letter would have been just the same.

I think I had the best holiday of my life dear, I am looking forward to my next one very much.

Cigarettes are much better to get hold of

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here, we are allowed twenty a day but whether the good fortune will last or not I don't know especially as we are moving, so [one deleted word] if you manage to get hold of any I should stick to them. I am writing this during the morning, I have to go round and see the Wing Commander now so I will add a bit more to it later on.

I am here again dear, since writing the above I have been round to see the Wing Commander, we were interrupted in our conversation though and I have to go back tomorrow, I went straight down to Doncaster after seeing him and have been down there until now, it is nearly eleven.

I had tea there and went to the pictures, had some supper and then came back here, rather a lovely evening but

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I enjoyed it, there are three picture houses here but they dont appear to show very outstanding films, the programme I saw was quite good, Gordon Harker and Alistair Sims [sic] in ‘Inspector Hornleigh goes to it’, it was quite amusing, the other film was ‘The Gay Caballero’ with Cesar Romero in it, it was a fairly decent film.

The first fellow I saw here was a pilot I knew at Cottesmore, in fact he was the first fellow I flew with there, I asked him if he knew Mick and he says he finished his two hundred hours the night before last and has probably gone now.

I wish I could make you understand how much I enjoyed my holiday dear, it was the most wonderful week of my life, I have you to thank for it dear.

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In the unlikely event of you being called up dear I want you to give every consideration as to what you will go into, I am sure you are not the type for the services, the more I see of the W.A.A.F.S. the more I realise that, look at factory life from every angle and consider that there are other sides to it than just standing at a machine, but I really don’t think you will be called upon to go, [one deleted word] you know that every thing will be done to keep you in your present [one deleted word] job.

All my love
Walter.
XXX.