Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Title
Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Description
He writes he has moved 2700 miles by train. They stopped at Montreal for 10 hours. Food and accommodation was very good. They were met at Winnipeg by a reception committee. His journey finished at Lethbridge.
Creator
Date
1943-07-28
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
One double sided handwritten airletter
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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430728-0001, EDarbyCAHWellandJ430728-0002
Transcription
No.
28/7/43.
Dear Jean.
As you have probably heard, things are at last moving, so have I for that matter. We have just completed 2,700 miles by train, this took us 4 days and we have travelled threequarters of the way across Canada, [deleted] and [/deleted] at the moment being situated about 30 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. The journey was fairly comfortable, we each had a sleeping berth, clean sheets every night and a darkie porter to make new beds. The food was wizard, we were fed by the Railway Company and treated as first class travellers, even the waiters were obliging! Parts of the journey were most interesting, especially the section from Newcastle to Montreal, the railway follows the river through the hills and twists and turns the whole way. the cliffs are sheer from the river and at times looks impossible to build a railroad between them and the river. Montreal was the first real stop, we changed from C.N.R. to C.P.R. and had 10 hours to wait. the city is a gran place for entertainment and is often called ‘little new yor[missing words] the population is 75% French and everything is [missing words] the two languages. After leaving Montreal 8pm Saturday [missing words] travelled through some marvellous country typical Canadian with its lakes and pinewoods, then Lake Superior, right round its north shore, this although a lake looks more like Cornwall in coast line, can tell you my camera was busy but the train was in motion part of the time so some of the snaps will be spoilt.
Winnipeg, the grain city was the next stop, here the
[page break]
3
can just see the Rockies on a clear day, so you can realize the vastness of this central part of Canada. Well, space is getting short, hope you are keeping fit and hav’nt mown any more pedestrians down with your steed. This Air letter is the first I’ve written as the ban has just been lifted in sending them to civilians.
Cheerio for the moment, take care of yourself
Yours Jack
[page break]
AIR LETTER [deleted] TO [/deleted] FROM
ARMED FORCES
BY AIR MAIL
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss. J. WELLAND.
7. QUEENS DRIVE.
SURBITON. SURREY.
ENGLAND.
[inserted] 29-7-43 [/inserted]
FROM (Sender’s full name and address)
927893 L.A.C. DARBY.
[symbol] 8. B. & G. S. LETHBRIDGE
ALBERTA. CANADA.
[page break]
2/
local committee gave us a reception, including, cigarettes, chocolate and ices, as we only had 30 minutes there. things were a bit pushed, however we made it. After Winnipeg the wheat belt begins, its monotonous country, as level as the eye can see with barely a tree in sight. the railroad is built east and west and the track just vanishes in heat haze. It took 24 hours to cross this country and Lethbridge is just on the further edge of it. We
28/7/43.
Dear Jean.
As you have probably heard, things are at last moving, so have I for that matter. We have just completed 2,700 miles by train, this took us 4 days and we have travelled threequarters of the way across Canada, [deleted] and [/deleted] at the moment being situated about 30 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. The journey was fairly comfortable, we each had a sleeping berth, clean sheets every night and a darkie porter to make new beds. The food was wizard, we were fed by the Railway Company and treated as first class travellers, even the waiters were obliging! Parts of the journey were most interesting, especially the section from Newcastle to Montreal, the railway follows the river through the hills and twists and turns the whole way. the cliffs are sheer from the river and at times looks impossible to build a railroad between them and the river. Montreal was the first real stop, we changed from C.N.R. to C.P.R. and had 10 hours to wait. the city is a gran place for entertainment and is often called ‘little new yor[missing words] the population is 75% French and everything is [missing words] the two languages. After leaving Montreal 8pm Saturday [missing words] travelled through some marvellous country typical Canadian with its lakes and pinewoods, then Lake Superior, right round its north shore, this although a lake looks more like Cornwall in coast line, can tell you my camera was busy but the train was in motion part of the time so some of the snaps will be spoilt.
Winnipeg, the grain city was the next stop, here the
[page break]
3
can just see the Rockies on a clear day, so you can realize the vastness of this central part of Canada. Well, space is getting short, hope you are keeping fit and hav’nt mown any more pedestrians down with your steed. This Air letter is the first I’ve written as the ban has just been lifted in sending them to civilians.
Cheerio for the moment, take care of yourself
Yours Jack
[page break]
AIR LETTER [deleted] TO [/deleted] FROM
ARMED FORCES
BY AIR MAIL
[postage stamp] [postmark]
Miss. J. WELLAND.
7. QUEENS DRIVE.
SURBITON. SURREY.
ENGLAND.
[inserted] 29-7-43 [/inserted]
FROM (Sender’s full name and address)
927893 L.A.C. DARBY.
[symbol] 8. B. & G. S. LETHBRIDGE
ALBERTA. CANADA.
[page break]
2/
local committee gave us a reception, including, cigarettes, chocolate and ices, as we only had 30 minutes there. things were a bit pushed, however we made it. After Winnipeg the wheat belt begins, its monotonous country, as level as the eye can see with barely a tree in sight. the railroad is built east and west and the track just vanishes in heat haze. It took 24 hours to cross this country and Lethbridge is just on the further edge of it. We
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed May 12, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39545.
Item Relations
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