Letter from Jimmy Doughty to his sister Winnie

Letter from Jimmy Doughty to his sister Winnie

Writes about her lack of leave and that he has had photographs taken. Comments on his new camp and going into local town (Selby) for a meal. Continues with chat about his activities and that he was on a dispersed drome living in Nissen huts an long way from their mess. Comments on snow and weather. Does not know how long he would be there.

Four page handwritten letter

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EDoughtyJCDoughtyW[Date]-05

[underlined] 1 [/underlined]

1386802 Sgt Doughty
c/o Sgts Mess
R.A.F. Riccall,
Nr Shelby,
Yorks.

Dear Win,

Sorry you couldn’t get home last week still prehaps [sic] its just as well, if you had I couldnt [sic] have been spoilt quite so much as I have.

Mum made me get some photo’s [sic] taken, & I asked her to send one on to you (thats [sic] if you want it).

I thought this camp was pretty grim when I first arrived, but I’m beging [sic] to settle down a bit now & it doesn’t seem quite so bad. We had the afternoon off yesterday, & five of us went down to “Selby” the nearest town we missed the bus, but a chap in a car offered us a lift which was gratefully received. We had a darn good feed went to the pictures, ended up playing darts against the locals in a little

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pub, & on the whole quite enjoyed ourselfs, [sic] (We lost at darts & had to pay for the beer). One thing the people down here are very friendly, coming up to the place a policeman practicaly [sic] [indecipherable wordS] by the hand, came on the bus [indecipherable words] as for the driver [indecipherable words] caught the correct one when we changed he stopped the bus we wanted, & put us on with strict instructions to the conductor where to put us off.

At the moment I’m in the mess as I’ve got the morning off, but I have to work this afternoon, & tomorrow morning, & tomorrow night then I get a day off. One good thing about getting three tapes no one worries about what time you get in, or what time you get up, as long as you report for duty when you are detached.

We are in Nissen huts here, & its whats [sic] called a dispersed drome, & boy

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that word “dispersed” only gives half the picture, the words far-flung would suit it better. Our sight is 15 mins walk from the mess, & ours is about the nearest.

In future never talk about snow belt to me, theres [sic] more snow round here than even Babs could ever want or use, & lovely [deleted] could a [/deleted] cold weather to keep it company.

Remember Jack Ord, who used to come home with me from London when I first joined up, well he was one of the first blokes I saw when I came into the mess.

I don’t know how long I shall be down here, it all depends on the weather, if it clears up & they can get plenty of lying in, but if

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not I might be down here quite some considerable time, & apart from that they seem to have more engineers than they need here at the moment.

When I was originally posted here I was to come with no one I knew, but a mob of blokes had re-postings while on leave, so now there’s 14 of us from St Athen, & its not so bad.

I think you must admitt [sic] this is a very good effort for me (although the writings nearly [deleted] unc [/deleted] unreadable, but I cant shift from the fire) so now I’ll call it a day,

Best of Luck,

[underlined] Jim [/underlined]