Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Title
Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Description
He writes of the social activities at RAF Cark, domestic arrangements and expected timelines for postings.
Creator
Date
1943-10-01
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four handwritten sheets
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
EGortonHGortonLCM431001
Transcription
OFFICERS’ MESS,
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
CARK,
NORTH LANCASHIRE.
TELEPHONE GRANGE 390.
1/10/43
Dearest,
It’s 11.15 p.m., & I’ve just left a party at the Mess – farewell for Basher, - but I want to write to you tonight so that you’ll have a letter on Monday.
The party was really surprisingly good. I’d put myself on Night flying so as to avoid it, because I thought it would be the usual drinking bout, but N/F was cancelled & so I stayed on. There was very little drinking, but lots of silly games like tug of war, horse fighting etc. Everybody joined in & we had lots of fun, but it got pretty rough after the Waafs left, & by the time I came away they’d started singing rude songs, so I’d had enough. Still, it was a good farewell to Basher, whom everyone likes.
[page break]
2.
I must try & write my letters in bits, as there are lots of things I want to tell you, but can’t remember them when I sit down to write.
My battle dress was waiting for me when I came back from leave, & it’s been cleaned very well. The chief snag at the moment is that one of the pockets has been torn, but I think I’ll try & get the C.O.’s sewing meeting to do it, if I don’t take it home next week-end.
I think I’ll try & get a small electric fire, as it will really be very useful. If any questions are asked, I can always say I’ve got it for our home.
The more I think of it, the more I wish I could see you settled in a house of your own. I think I realised your difficulties at Newhouse more this leave than ever before, but even if everything
[page break]
3
were perfect there, it would still be much better for us to have our own place. I’ve been wondering what I can do about it, & the only think I can think of is to look at the adverts in the Manchester Guardian. I shall also have a look at the Bolton Evening News when I go home. It wouldn’t be very easy for you to move up to Lancashire, but if we can’t get a house in Abergavenny, we may as well have one there.
The Ops postings this month haven’t come through, so it looks as though the September postings will occur in October, & everyone be pushed a month back. I’m fifth, excluding those who are waiting for postings, so
[page break]
4
there will be two in November, two in December, & then myself in January. A lot can happen between now & then, however.
I hope the thrashing is going on O.K. Don’t work any harder than you can help, & take care of yourself, darling. I don’t mind so much your being ill when I’m there, because I can then be sure that you’re looked after properly, but I strongly object to your being ill when I’m away.
All my love, darling.
Keep cheerful, three months isn’t such a terribly long time.
Harold.
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
CARK,
NORTH LANCASHIRE.
TELEPHONE GRANGE 390.
1/10/43
Dearest,
It’s 11.15 p.m., & I’ve just left a party at the Mess – farewell for Basher, - but I want to write to you tonight so that you’ll have a letter on Monday.
The party was really surprisingly good. I’d put myself on Night flying so as to avoid it, because I thought it would be the usual drinking bout, but N/F was cancelled & so I stayed on. There was very little drinking, but lots of silly games like tug of war, horse fighting etc. Everybody joined in & we had lots of fun, but it got pretty rough after the Waafs left, & by the time I came away they’d started singing rude songs, so I’d had enough. Still, it was a good farewell to Basher, whom everyone likes.
[page break]
2.
I must try & write my letters in bits, as there are lots of things I want to tell you, but can’t remember them when I sit down to write.
My battle dress was waiting for me when I came back from leave, & it’s been cleaned very well. The chief snag at the moment is that one of the pockets has been torn, but I think I’ll try & get the C.O.’s sewing meeting to do it, if I don’t take it home next week-end.
I think I’ll try & get a small electric fire, as it will really be very useful. If any questions are asked, I can always say I’ve got it for our home.
The more I think of it, the more I wish I could see you settled in a house of your own. I think I realised your difficulties at Newhouse more this leave than ever before, but even if everything
[page break]
3
were perfect there, it would still be much better for us to have our own place. I’ve been wondering what I can do about it, & the only think I can think of is to look at the adverts in the Manchester Guardian. I shall also have a look at the Bolton Evening News when I go home. It wouldn’t be very easy for you to move up to Lancashire, but if we can’t get a house in Abergavenny, we may as well have one there.
The Ops postings this month haven’t come through, so it looks as though the September postings will occur in October, & everyone be pushed a month back. I’m fifth, excluding those who are waiting for postings, so
[page break]
4
there will be two in November, two in December, & then myself in January. A lot can happen between now & then, however.
I hope the thrashing is going on O.K. Don’t work any harder than you can help, & take care of yourself, darling. I don’t mind so much your being ill when I’m there, because I can then be sure that you’re looked after properly, but I strongly object to your being ill when I’m away.
All my love, darling.
Keep cheerful, three months isn’t such a terribly long time.
Harold.
Collection
Citation
Harold Gorton, “Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 9, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9134.
Item Relations
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