Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan
Title
Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan
Description
Comments on arrival of mail and that some for others had gone astray. Describes leave spent in Ireland in Dublin. which he compares favourably with dirty, old depressing England. Enjoyed food over there that was not available in England and describes some of his activities. Speculates on the future and mentions doing advanced course in navigation. Relates news of friend and colleagues. Asks after things at home.
Creator
Date
1945-07-16
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Four sided 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
EHoganPJHoganM450716
Transcription
A436464 F/S HOGAN P.
RAAF AUSPO
LONDON
16/7/45
Dear Marie,
On return from leave last night, I collected a little mail including one from you. Most of the chaps seem to be getting complaints from home about mail. Evidently some went astray somewhere. Very glad to hear you got the rain at last. It must have been a wonderful relief to everyone.
Well I spent 4 days of last week in Eire and had a great time. Didn't get far beyond Dublin this time. It is a really beautiful city compared to the English distorted sense of beauty. Admittedly English beauty does look very well on post cards but is dirty & old & depressing. Dublin is nice & clean & has the wide streets so familiar to any Australian.
Of course, I concentrated chiefly on wrapping myself round steaks, eggs, chocolates, milk & all the other things which
[page break]
had become a myth to anyone in England. I was lucky to get a spell of beautiful weather and got around all the nearby seaside resorts etc. Some of the scenery was beautiful & you'll get a fair idea of it through the post cards I send home. I also took some snaps but haven't had them developed as yet. I also bought a beautiful new camera over there. Haven't tried it yet as I've no film. The film situation is rather grim over this way. Hence if you [illegible words] onto any 116 films you can send them on, please.
I’ll be over [illegible word] for a long while yet & that is all of my own choosing, so don’t be too worried about it. As for the future I’m not letting it worry me unduly. I imagine we’ll be moving down southwards very shortly. We start a more advanced course in navigation theory, spherical trig etc & transport work next week & thence onto the real thing.
[page break]
Glad to note Dan is still O.K.
I spent each week end of my leave in Bradford with Jack & Mrs Collett, friends of Greg. I borrowed a few clothes from jack to go to Dublin. They are really good scouts & have treated me very well each time I’ve been there.
Met a pal of mine, Marty Ryan one day in O’Connell Street. I’d not seen him for about 15 mths & he was just finishing his honeymoon. His bride was a Dublin girl & very nice too. The girls all looked pretty decent [illegible words] it was a change to see [illegible words] dressed after the uniform [illegible words] clothes, with which [illegible words] have had to be [illegible words].
There are no buses on Sunday so I only had from Monday till Saturday & with the strict customs checks etc [inserted] at each end [/inserted] it took a whole day to cross each way which left me only 4 days.
I’ll be interested to know how the business about Uncle Jack Jeffrey goes. No doubt Smith’s & [indecipherable word] will go to town on it. We are not doing too well this test. Got the Drongoes out on Saturday for 254 & at lunch today we are 5 [indecipherable words]. Kev will be interested to know that Keith Miller is the best & fastest bowler in England at present. Regards to all Love Pat.
[page break]
AIR LETTER
Miss Marie Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Vic.
Australia
RAAF AUSPO
LONDON
16/7/45
Dear Marie,
On return from leave last night, I collected a little mail including one from you. Most of the chaps seem to be getting complaints from home about mail. Evidently some went astray somewhere. Very glad to hear you got the rain at last. It must have been a wonderful relief to everyone.
Well I spent 4 days of last week in Eire and had a great time. Didn't get far beyond Dublin this time. It is a really beautiful city compared to the English distorted sense of beauty. Admittedly English beauty does look very well on post cards but is dirty & old & depressing. Dublin is nice & clean & has the wide streets so familiar to any Australian.
Of course, I concentrated chiefly on wrapping myself round steaks, eggs, chocolates, milk & all the other things which
[page break]
had become a myth to anyone in England. I was lucky to get a spell of beautiful weather and got around all the nearby seaside resorts etc. Some of the scenery was beautiful & you'll get a fair idea of it through the post cards I send home. I also took some snaps but haven't had them developed as yet. I also bought a beautiful new camera over there. Haven't tried it yet as I've no film. The film situation is rather grim over this way. Hence if you [illegible words] onto any 116 films you can send them on, please.
I’ll be over [illegible word] for a long while yet & that is all of my own choosing, so don’t be too worried about it. As for the future I’m not letting it worry me unduly. I imagine we’ll be moving down southwards very shortly. We start a more advanced course in navigation theory, spherical trig etc & transport work next week & thence onto the real thing.
[page break]
Glad to note Dan is still O.K.
I spent each week end of my leave in Bradford with Jack & Mrs Collett, friends of Greg. I borrowed a few clothes from jack to go to Dublin. They are really good scouts & have treated me very well each time I’ve been there.
Met a pal of mine, Marty Ryan one day in O’Connell Street. I’d not seen him for about 15 mths & he was just finishing his honeymoon. His bride was a Dublin girl & very nice too. The girls all looked pretty decent [illegible words] it was a change to see [illegible words] dressed after the uniform [illegible words] clothes, with which [illegible words] have had to be [illegible words].
There are no buses on Sunday so I only had from Monday till Saturday & with the strict customs checks etc [inserted] at each end [/inserted] it took a whole day to cross each way which left me only 4 days.
I’ll be interested to know how the business about Uncle Jack Jeffrey goes. No doubt Smith’s & [indecipherable word] will go to town on it. We are not doing too well this test. Got the Drongoes out on Saturday for 254 & at lunch today we are 5 [indecipherable words]. Kev will be interested to know that Keith Miller is the best & fastest bowler in England at present. Regards to all Love Pat.
[page break]
AIR LETTER
Miss Marie Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Vic.
Australia
Collection
Citation
P J Hogan, “Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 16, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31953.
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