Letter from Jack Darby to Jean

Letter from Jack Darby to Jean

He writes there is a rumour of a posting. The weather is good but camp is boring. There have been church parades but they have managed to do a rota so that they have more time off. There are a lot of French Canadians with huge families of 12 to 17 children.

1943-07-08

Three double sided handwritten sheets and envelope

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EDarbyCAHWellandJ430708

[postage stamp] [post mark]

[Canadian YMCA crest]

Miss J. Welland
5. Queens Drive
Surbiton
Surrey.
England

[inserted] 13.7.43 [/inserted]
[inserted] 10.7.43 [/inserted]

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[Canadian YMCA crest] [ON ACTIVE SERVICE]

No. 25.

927893. L.A.C. Darby.
#31 R.A.F. Depot
Moncton N.B.

8/7/43.

Dear Jean,

Thanks so much for letter 15 which arrived yesterday, am glad you received letter of mine O.K, I believe this method is somewhat quicker, hope to get a few more off at intervals if we still stay here, at the moment some gen is flying around about a posting. it may be right, perhaps in my next letter shall know something definate [sic]

Life still continues somewhat boring, but the weather is good and we get away from the ‘internment camp’ as much as possible. The last two weekends

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2/

have been somewhat [deleted] spl [/deleted] spoilt by demands of church parade although we got the thing organized in shifts and answered for each other, of course the flight sergeant discovered he was about 20 short on parade but what is 20 in 500? As last Sunday was my day “off” my pal and I hitch hiked as far as the Nova-Scotia border, not far, about 35 miles, the scenery is pretty good and as the land has been settled for a great number of years its been cleared and rather resembles Dorset or Devon with its red earth. The population is largely French, not good country for hitching from our point of view, one feature of this part is the picturesque wooden churches, usually tucked away

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in a belt of pine trees, they are of wood and being painted white stand out for miles. The soil is fairly good for pasture but little is under plough, each family just growing enough to feed itself, as Canada is termed a young country its population is increasing rapidly, the French-Canadians especially, families of twelve to seventeen children are quite common! As my cynical pal remarked “in outlying districts this is all they have to do in the winter”. the English descendants look upon the rapid increase of the French section as a menace which will ultimately cut Canada adrift from the Empire, its certainly a problem as the French are strong Roman Catholics and under the thumb of their parish priests, Quebec is an outstanding

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example is the poorest and most backward in all Canada.

Hope this last part has’nt bored you, being an enquiring person I love to find out all about this Country and its people.

Am very sorry to disappoint you, we are’nt issued with shorts, in any case my legs are quite respectable, they’re not like match sticks. regarding swimming well I do indulge, am not a strong swimmer, about 300 yards is my maximum, can just paddle around and enjoy myself, how about you?, can you float and swim like an expert or do you confine your activities to splashing on the edge.

One other thing I take a very dim view of people talking about pints of cool bitter when its about 90 in the shade and the only drink you can [inserted] [deleted] get [/deleted] [/inserted]
[symbol]

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5/

get is lukewarm orange juice, I shall retaliate by giving a description of fresh peaches and strawberries and cream, with a strawberry sundae to finish up with, do you like these?

Theres not a lot more to say, have you had your holidays yet? if so hope the weather was good to you, wish you were over here, there’s some marvellous places to visit, all I want is a car and unlimited gas, then we could go places.

Cheerio for the moment, just going to have a nice cream ice, take care of yourself

Yours

Jack.