Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He has suddenly been transferred overnight and boarded a troopship. He has been working an hour a day as a mess orderly. He says the food is good.
Creator
Date
1943-02-28
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430228
Transcription
ON ACTIVE SERVICE.
[POST OFFICE Stamp] MARITIME MAIL
Miss J. Welland,
7, Queens Drive,
Surbiton
Surrey,
England
28.2.43
[page break]
927893. L.A.C. Darby,
Draft 6967.
H.M. Troopship.
Dear Jean,
Thought I would send you a few lines now am on the way to give you the gen on "life on the ocean wave." We left Heaton Park in a hurry as you will have realized by now not having a [underlined] prompt [/underlined] reply to your last letter. After travelling all night on the train we embarked straight away aboard what was in peace times a liner although certain alterations have been carried out since, naturally there is not a lot of room but we manage
[page break]
2.
You would have laughed to see us slinging our hammocks the first night, however we managed in the end, they are very comfortable and there is no[deleted] t [/deleted] danger of falling out in rough weather which would happen to the people who decided to sleep on the floor. Next day [deleted] were [/deleted] we were in the first sitting at meals this made the meal times rather odd as we had breakfast at 7 a.m. lunch 11.30 a.m. supper 5 o/c. lucky there was a canteen to fill in the long hours from evening until breakfast next morning. The food is pretty good considering all things, the first two days there were quite
[page break]
3/
a few vacant places as the sea was a bit rough, but yours truly did'nt miss a meal and never felt 'green' at all. The funny thing was that there were quite a few navy people aboard in the [deleted word] same state, think it was their first time at sea, however everyone soon recovered.
Naturally they have managed to find several jobs for us in a way its not a bad idea as there is nothing to do. I have been mess orderly, only about an hours work a day, just suits me, but some of the boys are working as butchers, bakers assistants, cookhouse and dining room orderlies
[page break]
4/
etc so it could be a lot worse.
The weather has been fairly bright and fresh, its strange to come up day after day and see nothing but sea, the ocean seems an immense lonely place and you seem more or less detached from life.
How have you been getting on, are Eastwoods still putting up with you? what has happened to the choral society? expect they have decided to dispense quietly before murder is done!
Well thats all at the moment, will give you a more permanent address next time
All the best
Yours Jack.
[POST OFFICE Stamp] MARITIME MAIL
Miss J. Welland,
7, Queens Drive,
Surbiton
Surrey,
England
28.2.43
[page break]
927893. L.A.C. Darby,
Draft 6967.
H.M. Troopship.
Dear Jean,
Thought I would send you a few lines now am on the way to give you the gen on "life on the ocean wave." We left Heaton Park in a hurry as you will have realized by now not having a [underlined] prompt [/underlined] reply to your last letter. After travelling all night on the train we embarked straight away aboard what was in peace times a liner although certain alterations have been carried out since, naturally there is not a lot of room but we manage
[page break]
2.
You would have laughed to see us slinging our hammocks the first night, however we managed in the end, they are very comfortable and there is no[deleted] t [/deleted] danger of falling out in rough weather which would happen to the people who decided to sleep on the floor. Next day [deleted] were [/deleted] we were in the first sitting at meals this made the meal times rather odd as we had breakfast at 7 a.m. lunch 11.30 a.m. supper 5 o/c. lucky there was a canteen to fill in the long hours from evening until breakfast next morning. The food is pretty good considering all things, the first two days there were quite
[page break]
3/
a few vacant places as the sea was a bit rough, but yours truly did'nt miss a meal and never felt 'green' at all. The funny thing was that there were quite a few navy people aboard in the [deleted word] same state, think it was their first time at sea, however everyone soon recovered.
Naturally they have managed to find several jobs for us in a way its not a bad idea as there is nothing to do. I have been mess orderly, only about an hours work a day, just suits me, but some of the boys are working as butchers, bakers assistants, cookhouse and dining room orderlies
[page break]
4/
etc so it could be a lot worse.
The weather has been fairly bright and fresh, its strange to come up day after day and see nothing but sea, the ocean seems an immense lonely place and you seem more or less detached from life.
How have you been getting on, are Eastwoods still putting up with you? what has happened to the choral society? expect they have decided to dispense quietly before murder is done!
Well thats all at the moment, will give you a more permanent address next time
All the best
Yours Jack.
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed October 22, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39874.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.