Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Title
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
He had a 48 hour leave and went to St John. They had a good meal at a restaurant then were invited, the next day, to a Canadian family's house. Then they had an evening with a different family. He still has no news of the training course.
Creator
Date
1943-04-25
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Three 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
EDarbyCAHWellandJ430425
Transcription
[Canadian Y.M.C.A crest]
[inserted] 25.4.43 [/inserted]
[postage stamp] [post mark]
Miss J. Welland.
5. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey.
England
[page break]
10/
[Canadian Y.M.C.A crest]
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
927893. L.A.C. Darby
31. Depot. 12 G. R.A.F.
Moncton N.B.
Canada
25/4/43.
Dear Jean
Have just received airgraph number 3/ glad to see you are keeping up your letter writing, its so nice to get a letter or airgraph from you they are all the more valuable after travelling all these miles.
Since writing last have seen some more of Canada, I managed to get a 48 hour pass (quite a feat here as getting time off is like trying [deleted] the [/deleted] to draw the back teeth out of a shark.) however the methods employed would not interest you yet, will give you the gen when you come and disorganize the W.A.A.F. later on.
[page break]
2/.
As St John is about the largest city near here I decided to go there, had heard it was a fairly decent place for servicemen. It certainly caters for them, at the station there is an information bureau, they booked my room at the Salvation Army Hostel and said if I had not set programme they would arrange it for me. I happened to meet another R.A.F. chap so we decided to tag along together. As it was fairly late we decided to organize things for tomorrow, so the next quest was food, we had supper in a good class restaurant, a wizard meal, fried chicken, mushrooms etc, strawberry sundae with fresh strawberries and so forth and we felt at peace with the world. The next day we were invited out for the afternoon, tea, ect [sic], the hostess was very nice, had a marvellous house, was built about 500ft higher than St John and had a marvellous view all round, the harbour is pretty large and there were all kinds of interesting
[page break]
3/
places to be seen. She had two very nice daughters with whom we had a great time, they were rather disappointed when they knew we had a date for the evening as they would have taken us out to a dance, still have a standing invitation to visit them again. It was nearly eight o’clock before we could get away but we just made the other date, this was more like a party, the lady & gentleman had invited an equal number of girls so everything was balanced. It was the usual stuff, games, cards, dancing to the radiogram, we had a great time in fact we left at 2 AM. Its surprising how more friendly people are at St John than here, they take a very good view of the R.A.F. there, can’t do enough for you.
St John has quite an interesting history
[page break]
4/
it was founded in one day, 4,000 people in 20 ships arrived from Boston and district after the Yanks had declared their independance [sic], preferring to remain under the British flag, it is said that by this Canada was saved for England. The descendants of the 4,000 are numerous among the leading citizens and are very proud of their city. WIll show you all the places founded on the first day and the place where they landed. We could have gone out for the day on Sunday but unfortunately there is only one train on Sunday at 11.10 AM. what a waste of a day!
So after [two indecipherable words] you have grown [deleted word] keen to try bigger things but surely church organs are a bit tough think we shall have to take you over Germany and [inserted] let you [/inserted] sing through a mike, the Huns would’nt stand two doses of that, they’d say “bring on the Block Busters”
[page break]
5/
Well, after those few sweet words of praise how’s things with you, still continuing your harmless little games I suppose, played any tennis yet? expect its getting quite the weather for grass courts. Spring has arrived by express here, the temperature has shot up, the sky is clear and everything is beginning to burst into leaf, even I’m busting – the buttons on my tunic, all this food I’m getting I’m having a job to conceal my third double chin under my collar.
Theres still no news of a move, think we’ve here for the duration, should like to spend Christmas at home but unless we start soon I’ve had it, still could be in worse places.
What do you think of Russia breaking off relations with Poland? seems fishy to me. looks as though they intend to hold on to the part of Poland they overan before the Huns attacked them.
[page break]
6/
We still seem to be pushing ahead in Tunisia, hope we kick them out soon and start on the real job.
Well, thats about all for the moment, will write again soon, let me know if the mail is arriving O.K.
Cheerio, all the best, write again soon.
Yours
Jack
[inserted] 25.4.43 [/inserted]
[postage stamp] [post mark]
Miss J. Welland.
5. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey.
England
[page break]
10/
[Canadian Y.M.C.A crest]
ON ACTIVE SERVICE
927893. L.A.C. Darby
31. Depot. 12 G. R.A.F.
Moncton N.B.
Canada
25/4/43.
Dear Jean
Have just received airgraph number 3/ glad to see you are keeping up your letter writing, its so nice to get a letter or airgraph from you they are all the more valuable after travelling all these miles.
Since writing last have seen some more of Canada, I managed to get a 48 hour pass (quite a feat here as getting time off is like trying [deleted] the [/deleted] to draw the back teeth out of a shark.) however the methods employed would not interest you yet, will give you the gen when you come and disorganize the W.A.A.F. later on.
[page break]
2/.
As St John is about the largest city near here I decided to go there, had heard it was a fairly decent place for servicemen. It certainly caters for them, at the station there is an information bureau, they booked my room at the Salvation Army Hostel and said if I had not set programme they would arrange it for me. I happened to meet another R.A.F. chap so we decided to tag along together. As it was fairly late we decided to organize things for tomorrow, so the next quest was food, we had supper in a good class restaurant, a wizard meal, fried chicken, mushrooms etc, strawberry sundae with fresh strawberries and so forth and we felt at peace with the world. The next day we were invited out for the afternoon, tea, ect [sic], the hostess was very nice, had a marvellous house, was built about 500ft higher than St John and had a marvellous view all round, the harbour is pretty large and there were all kinds of interesting
[page break]
3/
places to be seen. She had two very nice daughters with whom we had a great time, they were rather disappointed when they knew we had a date for the evening as they would have taken us out to a dance, still have a standing invitation to visit them again. It was nearly eight o’clock before we could get away but we just made the other date, this was more like a party, the lady & gentleman had invited an equal number of girls so everything was balanced. It was the usual stuff, games, cards, dancing to the radiogram, we had a great time in fact we left at 2 AM. Its surprising how more friendly people are at St John than here, they take a very good view of the R.A.F. there, can’t do enough for you.
St John has quite an interesting history
[page break]
4/
it was founded in one day, 4,000 people in 20 ships arrived from Boston and district after the Yanks had declared their independance [sic], preferring to remain under the British flag, it is said that by this Canada was saved for England. The descendants of the 4,000 are numerous among the leading citizens and are very proud of their city. WIll show you all the places founded on the first day and the place where they landed. We could have gone out for the day on Sunday but unfortunately there is only one train on Sunday at 11.10 AM. what a waste of a day!
So after [two indecipherable words] you have grown [deleted word] keen to try bigger things but surely church organs are a bit tough think we shall have to take you over Germany and [inserted] let you [/inserted] sing through a mike, the Huns would’nt stand two doses of that, they’d say “bring on the Block Busters”
[page break]
5/
Well, after those few sweet words of praise how’s things with you, still continuing your harmless little games I suppose, played any tennis yet? expect its getting quite the weather for grass courts. Spring has arrived by express here, the temperature has shot up, the sky is clear and everything is beginning to burst into leaf, even I’m busting – the buttons on my tunic, all this food I’m getting I’m having a job to conceal my third double chin under my collar.
Theres still no news of a move, think we’ve here for the duration, should like to spend Christmas at home but unless we start soon I’ve had it, still could be in worse places.
What do you think of Russia breaking off relations with Poland? seems fishy to me. looks as though they intend to hold on to the part of Poland they overan before the Huns attacked them.
[page break]
6/
We still seem to be pushing ahead in Tunisia, hope we kick them out soon and start on the real job.
Well, thats about all for the moment, will write again soon, let me know if the mail is arriving O.K.
Cheerio, all the best, write again soon.
Yours
Jack
Collection
Citation
Jack Darby, “Letter from Jack Darby to Jean,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 6, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/39899.
Item Relations
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