Letter from David Boldy to his mother
Title
Letter from David Boldy to his mother
Description
Letter from David Boldy to his mother. Speaks about his daily life in Torquay including drill, physical training and fire picket duties. He comments on his social life with the girls.
Creator
Date
1940-06-27
Temporal Coverage
Coverage
Language
Format
Four page handwritten letter
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
EBoldyDABoldyLM400627
Transcription
923995, BOLDY. A.C.2.
D Flight No 3 Squadron,
No 5 I.T.W.
R.A.F. Torquay.
27th June 1940.
My darling Mum & Steve,
Many thanks for both your letters.
Torquay is certainly beautiful but as I told you in my last letter the bathing is rotten. You never quite know when [one indecipherable word] where you will land up in 2 feet of water.
The French certainly seem to have caught it in the neck. Ian is the limit, he simply cannot take it. If he is behaving like that now, God Knows what he will do if he really bumps up against something. We all grouse but that is because we have nothing better to do. But I will say Margaret is enough to get on anyone's nerves. The band leader must have been an interesting chap.
I should think you would be fairly safe in the shelter, but of course the trouble is getting to the damn thing in time. Something ought to be done about the woman in the
[page break]
Mews. People who leave the shelters before time deserve all they get. We have not been disturbed at all so far in Torquay. I'm glad to hear there is another mouse less in the flat.
It was bad luck about Pat's boy friend. Perhaps he may still be alive. It would be a good idea if you could get hold of a couple of tin hats for raids as they are a great protection.
I am very pleased to hear about [deleted] tin [/deleted] my smashing blonde [inserted] (aged 4.) [/inserted] As a matter of fact to be quite honest she is the only lady I am at all interested in at the moment. I think she deserves a photograph of me. I hope Steve is not being lazy.
The message to Dad is perfect. It must be damnable for him, especially as letters take so long these days.
I am glad to hear Bill is getting on well after his operation. [one indecipherable word] remark about
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
about Uncle Martin talking nonsense is rather amusing. I hope you do well in your surgery.
The night suits will do fine. I shall write for anything else I need. Thanks for the £1 you are going to send. In future I shall only take £1 at a time it will then last longer. I hear we will only be paid £1 for the next fortnight - Out of it I have to pay 2/- for a photograph 1/- sports fund, & 1/- for a wireless (radio) raffle.
Last evening Scottie and I went out. We had something to eat - very meagre as that is all we could afford. After that we did some morse code. It was very useful as I now know the alphabet. I shall have to work on speed now. We must do six words a minute.
We went down to the promenade to-day for [deleted] B [/deleted] Drill, P.T. and [deleted] parade [/deleted] [inserted] indecipherable word [/inserted].
We did Drill & P.T. but had no.
[page break]
swim for some reason or other. It was very amusing. We all changed on the green adjoining the road & many people were looking on. There was rather an attractive blonde, showing a good bit of leg, who seemed very interested. We were not at all bashful. Our corporals behaved disgustingly when they were changing. The Blonde however was unperturbed.
I am on Firepicket tonight, so shall not be able to get out this evening. Perhaps it is just as well as I have no money. I owe 6/- and am owed 6/- so will have all my pay on Friday. Some blokes' [deleted] ha [/deleted] accounts don't balance quite so favourably.
The weather has been funny, sun & rain alternately.
Will enclose letter for Dad.
No more to-day. God bless you both
Love [underlined] Dave. [/underlined]
D Flight No 3 Squadron,
No 5 I.T.W.
R.A.F. Torquay.
27th June 1940.
My darling Mum & Steve,
Many thanks for both your letters.
Torquay is certainly beautiful but as I told you in my last letter the bathing is rotten. You never quite know when [one indecipherable word] where you will land up in 2 feet of water.
The French certainly seem to have caught it in the neck. Ian is the limit, he simply cannot take it. If he is behaving like that now, God Knows what he will do if he really bumps up against something. We all grouse but that is because we have nothing better to do. But I will say Margaret is enough to get on anyone's nerves. The band leader must have been an interesting chap.
I should think you would be fairly safe in the shelter, but of course the trouble is getting to the damn thing in time. Something ought to be done about the woman in the
[page break]
Mews. People who leave the shelters before time deserve all they get. We have not been disturbed at all so far in Torquay. I'm glad to hear there is another mouse less in the flat.
It was bad luck about Pat's boy friend. Perhaps he may still be alive. It would be a good idea if you could get hold of a couple of tin hats for raids as they are a great protection.
I am very pleased to hear about [deleted] tin [/deleted] my smashing blonde [inserted] (aged 4.) [/inserted] As a matter of fact to be quite honest she is the only lady I am at all interested in at the moment. I think she deserves a photograph of me. I hope Steve is not being lazy.
The message to Dad is perfect. It must be damnable for him, especially as letters take so long these days.
I am glad to hear Bill is getting on well after his operation. [one indecipherable word] remark about
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
about Uncle Martin talking nonsense is rather amusing. I hope you do well in your surgery.
The night suits will do fine. I shall write for anything else I need. Thanks for the £1 you are going to send. In future I shall only take £1 at a time it will then last longer. I hear we will only be paid £1 for the next fortnight - Out of it I have to pay 2/- for a photograph 1/- sports fund, & 1/- for a wireless (radio) raffle.
Last evening Scottie and I went out. We had something to eat - very meagre as that is all we could afford. After that we did some morse code. It was very useful as I now know the alphabet. I shall have to work on speed now. We must do six words a minute.
We went down to the promenade to-day for [deleted] B [/deleted] Drill, P.T. and [deleted] parade [/deleted] [inserted] indecipherable word [/inserted].
We did Drill & P.T. but had no.
[page break]
swim for some reason or other. It was very amusing. We all changed on the green adjoining the road & many people were looking on. There was rather an attractive blonde, showing a good bit of leg, who seemed very interested. We were not at all bashful. Our corporals behaved disgustingly when they were changing. The Blonde however was unperturbed.
I am on Firepicket tonight, so shall not be able to get out this evening. Perhaps it is just as well as I have no money. I owe 6/- and am owed 6/- so will have all my pay on Friday. Some blokes' [deleted] ha [/deleted] accounts don't balance quite so favourably.
The weather has been funny, sun & rain alternately.
Will enclose letter for Dad.
No more to-day. God bless you both
Love [underlined] Dave. [/underlined]
Collection
Citation
David Boldy, “Letter from David Boldy to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/679.
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