Letter from David Boldy to his mother

EBoldyDABoldyLM400626.pdf

Title

Letter from David Boldy to his mother

Description

Letter from David Boldy to his mother. Speaks about leaving Hastings, the leading aircraftsman course. He is swimming and is delighted with the number of girls around, and discusses a bombing attack on London.

Creator

Date

1940-06-26

Temporal Coverage

Coverage

Language

Format

Four page handwritten letter

Conforms To

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

EBoldyDABoldyLM400626

Transcription

923995, A.C.2. BOLDY. D.A.
[deleted] D. FLIGHT. NO 3 Squadron,
No 5. I.T.W.
Room 46, Elford Leigh Hotel,
Torquay,
Devonshire, [/deleted]
[inserted] from
Boldy.
59, Bathurst Mews
Lancaster Gate
London, W.2. [/inserted]

26th June 1940.

Mum darling,

We have had a Terrific day to-day. Till 1.30 we were unloading stores lockers etc & at the end of it we were half dead. In the afternoon we had P.T. and then a swim & some poor devils have just got bussed in for more unloading. I am free now thank heavens. Still we had some fun in the Lorry [sic] on the way to the Railway station.

Ajan, Griffith & I went for a swim last evening. We then had a meal.

On our way home we met Cecil who was with Trixie - a girl friend from London - who is living here at the moment. We had a chat.

It is awfully amusing to see the people watching us march to

[page break]

meals & doing parade. It was quite amusing after our swim to-day.

I saw in the papers that London had a very long warning. I suppose you & Steve must have been up all night. God Knows [sic] how this war is going to end. I don't see how we can Take the initiative now. Perhaps an opportunity will present itself later.

I am going to buy a pair of bathing shorts soon from the R.A.F. You get a lovely pair for 8/6. I may get it after pay day.

There are masses of girls here. So far I should think they are very disappointed with the R.A.F. as being short of cash we have all been very quiet after Friday when we really get going they may be really disappointed.

We did a lot of cheering and hand waving in the train on our way

[page break]

[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]

here. The people at Hastings were genuinely sorry that the R.A.F. were leaving. Incidentally it Takes 5 1/2 hrs from here to Paddington. That isn't so bad really. I understand however, that we will not get leave Till the end of this course. That is another six weeks. But one never knows. We may get week -end leave some Time.

Only a couple of weeks left for me to get my L.A.C. If they don't start paying then I shall get all my back money - from the Time I became an L.A.C. in a lump sum.

The countryside here is quite pretty. It is hilly. Our room faces the bay. It is a beautiful [deleted] to [/deleted] view. The bathing in this bay is not so good however. You have to walk out a good distance first. I prefer a plunge. I hear that there are some lovely bathing spots nearby.

[page break]

I tried to phone through last evening to have a chat but could not even get the operator. I may try again to-night. Leollie (another friend of ours) and I are going out for a stroll shortly. We are going to study some Morse Code, I hope! Five of our lot Ajan, Chivers, Chatham, Kelly & myself are in the same room and four of our crowd in another, so that is quite good.

I haven't seen a daily newspaper since I came here. I tried to phone last night as I know you would not have had a letter for a few days. You ought to have got the one or two in one I posted last night.

No more to-day. God bless you both.

[underlined] Love Dave. [/underlined]

Collection

Citation

David Boldy, “Letter from David Boldy to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 8, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/678.

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