Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

He writes about his law exams, night flying, returning to operational flying and of social activities and domestic details.

1943-10-21

Five handwritten sheets

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EGortonHGortonLCM431021

Cark 21/10/43
Dearest,
I was very glad to get your letter today, but sorry that you aren’t feeling very well. You must take care of yourself & not work so hard – for my sake if not for your own. It makes me think it would be a good thing for you to come here for a week or two, so that you could have a rest.
I’ll see if I can fix up for us to stay at the Kent’s Bank Hotel. It’s actually closed for the winter, but the Flying Wing Adj is staying there while her husband is on embarkation leave. She catches the 7.20 train to Cark & has breakfast in the Mess, so that the people in the hotel needn’t get her breakfast early.
I shall be filling in my Ops form tomorrow, & if all goes well I should be leaving here about the 20th November. What about coming up here about the 6th or 8th, & staying until I am posted? I’ll start making tentative enquiries now.
I’m writing this in my room while
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my pupil is doing his night solo. In about ten minutes I shall have to go down to the flights & take up another pupil. It will be long drawn out tonight, as each pupil is doing 2 hours solo after his dual, so that my [deleted] next [/deleted] [inserted] last [/inserted] trip will be at one a.m. if everything goes well.
This afternoon, Stockdale, Gilligan and I went to Ulverston to see the “Life & Death of Colonel Blimp”. It is an excellent film, & we enjoyed it immensely.
Otherwise, I’ve spent most if my time this week on stand-off for night flying, but have only been up once. I’ll have a night off tomorrow, and try & fly on Saturday so that I shall miss the Mess dance, as I don’t feel like going.
I must go & fly now. More later.
11.30 a.m. Friday
I didn’t come back to my room again until 0245, & I’m afraid that I was too tired to finish this letter & then cycle to the post in the rain. I hope you’ll forgive me missing this post, but I really
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had had enough by then.
It seems to be a poor show about your Ideal boiler. Can’t you send a strong letter to the people who sold it, & tell them you want your money back? Even in war time they can’t sell you something as complete when some parts are missing. Having studied the Law of Tort & Contract, I feel I’m able to speak on the subject!
I’m jolly glad the Utility man has been to enquire. It sounds hopeful, doesn’t it, & we shall feel a lot better if we can get some more things. I think we said that a couple of bed settees and some kitchen furniture were our most urgent needs, but we can decide properly when we get our allocation of points.
I’m going to see the Adj. about my ops form as soon as I’ve finished this letter, & I’ll ask her about the Kent’s Bank at the same time. I had a long talk with the C.F.I. the other day. He was a bit doubtful about whether he could let me go, but we’re getting four new
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instructors tomorrow, so it’s all right. His last words to me were that he expected me to do 100 hrs flying before I go! I told him that anyone who could do 100 hours in a month at Cark was a genius! He’ll learn, I think, when he’s been here a bit longer, but he’s too “hour conscious” at the moment.
So Janks got fed up, did he? You must find it very dull now that he’s not at Newhouse. Although I thought Nikko was the better man, Janks was certainly much more lively.
Thanks for the cutting about Artemus Jones.
That was a bad show, wasn’t it, addressing [deleted] l [/deleted] your letter “Mrs J.A.” I’m sorry about that, darling.
I’ll try all I know to find a nice place for us to stay in. You don’t know how much I’m wanting to see you again. It seems an awfully long time since I saw you, although it’s not quite a month yet. Since I’m going to be a
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pupil again, my leave will be less regular for a time. That doesn’t mean that I shall get less leave; in fact, if there is the usual hold-up between courses, I may get a good deal more, & when I’m on ops, I shall get 7 days every six weeks. That will be all right, won’t it?
I’m a bit dubious about this law exam now though. I’ve decided to try & carry on as though nothing had happened, & see if I can get a day off at Grantham so that I can take the exam – that’s if I go to Grantham.
All my love, darling. Take care of yourself, because you’re very important to me.
Harold.