Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

EGortonHGortonLCM440122.pdf

Title

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

Description

He writes of his duties and arranging leave.

Creator

Date

1944-01-22

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Language

Format

Four handwritten sheets

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

EGortonHGortonLCM440122

Transcription

Cark
Saturday.
Dearest,
I’m starting this letter tonight, but I’ll leave it open until tomorrow, when I hope to have my Dalachy address.
You can’t tell how relieved I was to get a letter from you this afternoon. I thought there would be one in the post, but was afraid that it might not arrive until Monday, by which time I should be away.
I was greatly surprised to have no cracks from you on the subject of Bob’s photo! He’s certainly thinner than he was than you knew him, as his first year in the R.A.F. fattened him up a bit. He seems to be back to normal now.
Re my promotion, it’s
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2
quite the accepted thing now here. We’ve had two newcomers to the Mess, & each time the C.O. has introduced me he has said I’m to be given another ring when Boddy goes, which is supposed to be early in February. As for Facey, Roderick & Gillegin, they give me no mercy, always making cracks bout “Acting F/Lt Gorton”!, & saying how they’ll make my life a misery.
As a matter of fact, however, I’ve begun the other way. On Friday morning Roderick was being a bit obstreperous so I tore him off a large strip & told him he could either do things my way or go somewhere else. It’s made no difference to his friendliness, fortunately, & I’m quite prepared to give all the rest of the instructors the same treatment. I feel that I’ve been
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3
instructing & receiving orders long enough to know what I’m talking about, & I’m going to have my own way in future. (Is this the swelled-headedness you’re afraid of!)
Incidentally, Riches has been made assistant C.F.I. (a bit of a flannel, in my opinion), & I am to be in sole charge of both A & B flights.
What do you think about my next leave? The earliest date I can have is Mar. 3rd – 14th, but as I’m going to Dalachy for a fortnight & shan’t be back until Feb. 8th I’m not sure if the C.F.I. will approve of my having leave 3 weeks later. I think it may be better if we had the next period, from March 17th. Let me know what you think.
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4
I agree with you that I shall have to see that I’m not too optimistic about the law, but I don’t think there’s much danger. I also agree that even a few exams passed should be useful in getting a job.
As for exams for you to take, I’m a bit vague at present, but will write more on the subject later.
I seem to have written a lot of letters lately, so you shouldn’t be suffering from a shortage.
I sincerely hope you can wangle a medical certificate, as I want this P.T. teaching idea finally knocked on the head. Perhaps they’ll find you a nice job instead!
All my love,
Harold.
[inserted] Address:
The Junior Commanders’ School,
RAF Dallachy,
Near Elgin,
Morayshire. [/inserted]

Collection

Citation

Harold Gorton, “Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9179.

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