Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Title
Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby
Description
He thanks her for a cable which arrived via Moncton plus 13 letters from her and family. His new camp is a very high standard, as is the food and sporting facilities. He has been at a National Park in the mountains.
Creator
Date
1943-08-07
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
One double sided handwritten air 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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430807-0001, EDarbyCAHWellandJ430807-0002
Transcription
No 27. 7.8.43.
Dear Jean,
First thanks so much for cable, it arrived only a few hours late after being forwarded on from Moncton, in fact on the morning of August 4th, in addition thanks for letters 19, 20, 22, 23, in fact I have had 13 letters in two days. The one from mother arrived today, she told me what a hopeless daughter she had when it comes to sending telegrams but of course I understand and sympathise with her, as I have'nt much space I'd Better ration rude remarks and give you some gen on the place. Firstly No 8. is R.C.A.F. and its the real McCoy, the Canadians certainly know how to outfit a camp, its more like a holiday camp in some ways. Theres three tennis courts, Badminton, Baseball, softball, football, a splendid canteen complete with milkbar. (I take a very good view of this as Canadian beer is lousy), discipline is very easy, everyone is very friendly, even the officers stop & talk to you.
We had a 48 hour pass before starting the course and immediately made tracks for the Rocky Mountains. We went to Waterton National Park, about 110 miles by road from here, of course we hitch-hiked, had a great time, met all kinds of people, we passed through an Indian reservation took a few photos, stayed the night at Pincher Creek, a typical Western town, then on to Waterton village, this is surrounded by mountains and they look great after being out in the prairie, the village is 5,000 ft above sea level and the mountains are about 8,000 – 10,000 ft. Its a proper holiday playground with boating, fishing, climbing, hiking, riding, tennis courts, golf, dance floor, cinema, in fact everything for amusement. We did some riding, it was grand, we rode along trails only about four feet wide winding in and out the mountains, sometimes 6,000 feet or more high, the
[page break]
3/
ponies are very sure footed and insisted on walking always along the outer edge of the trail, usually with a sheer drop of several hundred feet, of course I'd never riden [sic] before, I'll refrain from mentioning next morning, boy, what wouldn't I have given for a nice tall mantlelpiece to feed off – anyhow, shall try it again. We hitched back, had a wizard lift right to Lethbridge, it was a grand ride and the gentleman in the car insisted on taking us home
4/
to supper, we met his wife and daughter, were very nice, they have two sons and another daughter in the services and I think they get quite a kick out of bringing service lads home as its rather lonely now the family is reduced. Anyway we have an open invitation to visit them any time, just a ring on the phone and everythings O.K.
Well, space is gone again, will say cheerio for the moment, hope to be seeing you soon, where shall we have the first pint?
Yours Jack.
AIR LETTER TO ARMED FORCES
BY AIR MAIL [postage stamp and postmarks]
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED, THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.
[deleted] Number, Rank or Rating and Name [/deleted] MISS J. WELLAND.
[deleted] Unit (Company, Battery, Ship, Squadron, etc.) [/deleted] 7. QUEENS DRIVE
[deleted] Regiment, Branch, Establishment or Station [/deleted] SURBITON, SURREY, ENGLAND.
[deleted] Service [/deleted]
[inserted] 9-8-43 [/inserted] OVERSEAS.
FROM (Sender's full name and address)
M 927893. L.W.C. Darby
# 8. B & G.S.
Lethbridge Alberta.
[inserted] LC [/inserted]
Dear Jean,
First thanks so much for cable, it arrived only a few hours late after being forwarded on from Moncton, in fact on the morning of August 4th, in addition thanks for letters 19, 20, 22, 23, in fact I have had 13 letters in two days. The one from mother arrived today, she told me what a hopeless daughter she had when it comes to sending telegrams but of course I understand and sympathise with her, as I have'nt much space I'd Better ration rude remarks and give you some gen on the place. Firstly No 8. is R.C.A.F. and its the real McCoy, the Canadians certainly know how to outfit a camp, its more like a holiday camp in some ways. Theres three tennis courts, Badminton, Baseball, softball, football, a splendid canteen complete with milkbar. (I take a very good view of this as Canadian beer is lousy), discipline is very easy, everyone is very friendly, even the officers stop & talk to you.
We had a 48 hour pass before starting the course and immediately made tracks for the Rocky Mountains. We went to Waterton National Park, about 110 miles by road from here, of course we hitch-hiked, had a great time, met all kinds of people, we passed through an Indian reservation took a few photos, stayed the night at Pincher Creek, a typical Western town, then on to Waterton village, this is surrounded by mountains and they look great after being out in the prairie, the village is 5,000 ft above sea level and the mountains are about 8,000 – 10,000 ft. Its a proper holiday playground with boating, fishing, climbing, hiking, riding, tennis courts, golf, dance floor, cinema, in fact everything for amusement. We did some riding, it was grand, we rode along trails only about four feet wide winding in and out the mountains, sometimes 6,000 feet or more high, the
[page break]
3/
ponies are very sure footed and insisted on walking always along the outer edge of the trail, usually with a sheer drop of several hundred feet, of course I'd never riden [sic] before, I'll refrain from mentioning next morning, boy, what wouldn't I have given for a nice tall mantlelpiece to feed off – anyhow, shall try it again. We hitched back, had a wizard lift right to Lethbridge, it was a grand ride and the gentleman in the car insisted on taking us home
4/
to supper, we met his wife and daughter, were very nice, they have two sons and another daughter in the services and I think they get quite a kick out of bringing service lads home as its rather lonely now the family is reduced. Anyway we have an open invitation to visit them any time, just a ring on the phone and everythings O.K.
Well, space is gone again, will say cheerio for the moment, hope to be seeing you soon, where shall we have the first pint?
Yours Jack.
AIR LETTER TO ARMED FORCES
BY AIR MAIL [postage stamp and postmarks]
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED, THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT BY ORDINARY MAIL.
[deleted] Number, Rank or Rating and Name [/deleted] MISS J. WELLAND.
[deleted] Unit (Company, Battery, Ship, Squadron, etc.) [/deleted] 7. QUEENS DRIVE
[deleted] Regiment, Branch, Establishment or Station [/deleted] SURBITON, SURREY, ENGLAND.
[deleted] Service [/deleted]
[inserted] 9-8-43 [/inserted] OVERSEAS.
FROM (Sender's full name and address)
M 927893. L.W.C. Darby
# 8. B & G.S.
Lethbridge Alberta.
[inserted] LC [/inserted]
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter to Jean Welland from Jack Darby,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 23, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39624.
Item Relations
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