Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss M Hogan
Title
Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss M Hogan
Description
Starts with account of journey and visiting caves. Continues with gossip about friends and family and description of some activities.
Creator
Date
1944-07-23
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page handwritten 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
EHoganPJHoganM440723
Transcription
[letter from Pat Hogan to Miss M Hogan dated 23rd July 1944]
A 436464
Sgt Hogan PJ
RAAF Aus PO
London
23/7/44
Dear Marie,
Since sending an airmail letter about a week ago, very little of interest has taken place to write home about. They are still slogging us pretty hard but gave us all some respite to mark the end of our first fortnight here. Greg? & I hitchhiked to Nottingham. Quite successfully too for we only took a couple of hours, whereas to go by train and bus would have taken ages. They claim it is a modern city and I suppose it is on English standards, but of course is not a patch on Durban for being smart and up to date.
We were considered very fortunate to time our visit with an escorted tour through the caves. Like everything else here which is boosted up over here as worth seeing, it was pretty dire to my way of thinking. I’ve already made up my mind that I don’t intend to waste any more time seeing their sights. They can have St…… and …….. dismal Downing Stand all the rest for mine. They are exactly the same as the many pictures I’ve seen of them and equally as mournful looking. I expected the caves to be the old limestone formations as back home. However they turned out to be the old dwellings of the cave men. Thus we rambled around under the ground listening to all the historic …..and seeing the dark most of the time.
Really …….
……….. …….. much more interesting afternoon when we went to the Empire Theatre where ……. ? Kerton was the featured artist. He sang about a dozen numbers and there is no doubt about Anne, she is good. She is by far the most popular artist on The General Forces programme of the BBC. She …….. …….. and not so bad to look at either. We went to a dance up there also- a good band-good fun but it was a bit crowded and there were a few too many …. …
The Sergeant’s Mess put on a big turn on the station here last night. They made rather elaborate decorations and had rather a slashing band, although in accordance with traditions of any sergeant’s mess, there were quite a few drunks by midnight. Everyone was very well behaved and it was not a bad show at all.
Glad to know you are much better now and I hope Mary is also on the mend. Sorry to hear about Orrie Mac….. plight and if you’ll give me his address again, I’ll promise to drop him a line.
Well Marie I have work to do so you’ll have to excuse me. I know this is pretty ragged but I’m always so weary lately that I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on correspondence. ? ………. …….
Love to all at home
Pat
A 436464
Sgt Hogan PJ
RAAF Aus PO
London
23/7/44
Dear Marie,
Since sending an airmail letter about a week ago, very little of interest has taken place to write home about. They are still slogging us pretty hard but gave us all some respite to mark the end of our first fortnight here. Greg? & I hitchhiked to Nottingham. Quite successfully too for we only took a couple of hours, whereas to go by train and bus would have taken ages. They claim it is a modern city and I suppose it is on English standards, but of course is not a patch on Durban for being smart and up to date.
We were considered very fortunate to time our visit with an escorted tour through the caves. Like everything else here which is boosted up over here as worth seeing, it was pretty dire to my way of thinking. I’ve already made up my mind that I don’t intend to waste any more time seeing their sights. They can have St…… and …….. dismal Downing Stand all the rest for mine. They are exactly the same as the many pictures I’ve seen of them and equally as mournful looking. I expected the caves to be the old limestone formations as back home. However they turned out to be the old dwellings of the cave men. Thus we rambled around under the ground listening to all the historic …..and seeing the dark most of the time.
Really …….
……….. …….. much more interesting afternoon when we went to the Empire Theatre where ……. ? Kerton was the featured artist. He sang about a dozen numbers and there is no doubt about Anne, she is good. She is by far the most popular artist on The General Forces programme of the BBC. She …….. …….. and not so bad to look at either. We went to a dance up there also- a good band-good fun but it was a bit crowded and there were a few too many …. …
The Sergeant’s Mess put on a big turn on the station here last night. They made rather elaborate decorations and had rather a slashing band, although in accordance with traditions of any sergeant’s mess, there were quite a few drunks by midnight. Everyone was very well behaved and it was not a bad show at all.
Glad to know you are much better now and I hope Mary is also on the mend. Sorry to hear about Orrie Mac….. plight and if you’ll give me his address again, I’ll promise to drop him a line.
Well Marie I have work to do so you’ll have to excuse me. I know this is pretty ragged but I’m always so weary lately that I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on correspondence. ? ………. …….
Love to all at home
Pat
Collection
Citation
P J Hogan, “Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss M Hogan,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 24, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31941.
Item Relations
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