Letter from Peter Lamprey to W Gunton

Letter from Peter Lamprey to W Gunton

Peter Lamprey starts with a poem and then goes on to say this should be his last until after the New Year. He concludes with friendly banter.

1941-12-11

Envelope and three page handwritten letter

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.

ELampreyPGuntonW411211

INVERNESS
10 15AM
11 DEC
1941

[postage stamp]

Mr. W. Gunton
Waterlow And Sons. Ltd.
Twyford Abbey Road.
Park Royal.
London. N.W.10

[page break]

1384535 A.C.2. Lamprey.
Signals Section.
HQ. 14 Group.
RAF. Inverness.
Scotland.

Tuesday – as ever [Underlined] was. [/Underlined]

Dear Uncle Bill – My friends and all

I fear my letters sometimes fall
On ears that do not seem to heed.
The mighty truths in every screed.
You may look askance at the date
And sometimes murmer [sic] “Pete is late
His letters come in such a stream
The lad does nothing else but dream”.
Now this is quite the wrong idea.
It is’nt [sic] dreams of you I fear
But my example seems to lead
To sheets of stuff that’s [sic] hard to read
And though I welcome any note
The stuff that Mr Ashton wrote
Has made me realise the curse
That’s laid on me for writing verse.

[Page Break]

[Underlined] 2. [/Underlined]

Now my friends – just plain madam – I hope this will be the last letter I shall write from here until the New Year. So far my pass has stayed in the office and up to the time of going to press, nothing has been found wrong with it. So everything points to the fact that you are likely to have the thrilling experience of talking to an airman next – or rather listening to one. I am warning you in plenty of time so that the bunting and flags can be flown and the carpet laid. I shall endeavour to arrange this treat for Tuesday or Wednesday.

After a slight hitch in the normal run of things we have once again settled down to a steady effort at war winning. My nights – to your no doubt infinite dismay – have been dreamless and all things considered, it is as well. This breathing spare will give the Pseudo-Poet – Mr Ashton a chance to think up a few more libels. It will also enable my old friend Mr Hunt to collect the few wits he has and struggle on with his atte[inserted]m[/inserted]pts at verse.

[Page Break]

So for the present you will have to put up with prose. Should the muse heave one at me I will not fail to let you have it. Not that I have had a lot of time to listen to anything lately as I have been putting in a few well learned hours in town.

Im glad to hear Frank Batch is doing ok – if he’s doing as well as me he’s looking for his cards. I’d like to have seen him – or for that any of them. I don’t know who writes the bits for the Royal but he’d better keep it a secret until after I’ve called as there is something like a dirty crack in it, at me.

I think I’ve discovered your lovely scenery at last. It’s mainly in town. The only doubt as to whether it is the kind you mean is, I don’t know whether they had any A.T.S in the last dog-fight. I shan’t write a lot as I want to give you all the “gen” at first hand next week so just excuse the brevity.

Remember me to everyone and hope to see you next week.

Be seeing you.

Pete –