Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Title
Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Description
He writes of the weather and his course.
Creator
Date
1944-02-03
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Five 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
EGortonHGortonLCM440203
Transcription
[inserted] P.S. Don’t bother about Last Train from Berlin. I’m a bit tired of war books. [/inserted]
[Royal Air Force crest]
Dallachy
Thursday.
Dearest,
I got your letter postmarked 1st Feb today. That’s quite quick, isn’t it? We really have had good weather most of the time, but today is very wet. Fortunately we’ve only 100 yds to go to the lecture room and 250 yards to our billet, so the weather doesn’t matter much.
We’ve had two more exam results, & I seem to be keeping a steady average – 80, 78, 80, 77. If I keep this up I shall be very pleased, and I really see no reason why not as in only one exam are we not allowed to use our books. We’ve only got three more exams now, so I expect I shall be all right.
We’ve started hearing
[page break]
2
students' lectures today. Naturally I refused to put my name down for one as I should have looked rather silly talking about Training Command.
The first two today were very good, one by a Squadron Leader D.F.C. & Bar about the work of Bomber Command & the other one a description [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] by [/inserted] an Australian F/O [deleted] ab [/deleted] of how he landed in the Bay of Biscay to pick up two crews from ditched aircraft, handed the crews over to a destroyer, and then damaged his hull in taking off so that he had to land his Sunderland on an aerodrome. Perhaps you remember reading about it in the papers last April.
I’m glad you are getting my letters now. My first one was delayed, because I couldn’t write on the night I arrived, & so missed
[page break]
3
Wednesday’s post, & the letter didn’t go until Thursday at 8.30 a.m.
You’re quite right about it not being very long now before I’m on leave again. With luck it won’t be much more than a month, but I’m just a bit doubtful whether the C.F.I. will approve of my going on leave almost as soon as I‘ve got back from this course. Still, we’ll see.
As for the house in Llanvetherine, of course I’m interested, but make sure that it really will do for you before you plunge. Any house that has only [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] you & me in it will suit me down to the ground, because anyway I shall be in it only for short
[page break]
periods, but you’ll have to use it a good deal more than I shall, so it rests entirely with you. If you decide to try for it, pay for it whatever you fancy, and it will be O.K. with me. Actually, if it’s not too inconvenient, it should suit us admirably, especially since it’s reasonably close to Newhouse. But will your mother let you take it?
I quite appreciate, of course, how unsettled you feel because of the Ministry of Labour. They really are a pest, and I wish they’d make up their minds properly.
I think it would be better to do a Social Science certificate rather than a Froebel course, unless you are very keen on young children – which I somehow [deleted] dobut [/deleted] [inserted] doubt! [\inserted]
[page break]
5
I think the openings will be much better and the course more interesting. I think you’re right in doing no more about the Social Science until you know where you stand with the Ministry of Labour.
I’m setting off from here on Monday morning, & shall probably arrive at Cark in the small hours on Tuesday. I shall be gone before the post goes on Monday, so it will be as well if any letter which [deleted] d [/deleted] can’t get here for Saturday is sent to Cark.
I wish I could see you again darling.
All my love,
Harold.
[Royal Air Force crest]
Dallachy
Thursday.
Dearest,
I got your letter postmarked 1st Feb today. That’s quite quick, isn’t it? We really have had good weather most of the time, but today is very wet. Fortunately we’ve only 100 yds to go to the lecture room and 250 yards to our billet, so the weather doesn’t matter much.
We’ve had two more exam results, & I seem to be keeping a steady average – 80, 78, 80, 77. If I keep this up I shall be very pleased, and I really see no reason why not as in only one exam are we not allowed to use our books. We’ve only got three more exams now, so I expect I shall be all right.
We’ve started hearing
[page break]
2
students' lectures today. Naturally I refused to put my name down for one as I should have looked rather silly talking about Training Command.
The first two today were very good, one by a Squadron Leader D.F.C. & Bar about the work of Bomber Command & the other one a description [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] by [/inserted] an Australian F/O [deleted] ab [/deleted] of how he landed in the Bay of Biscay to pick up two crews from ditched aircraft, handed the crews over to a destroyer, and then damaged his hull in taking off so that he had to land his Sunderland on an aerodrome. Perhaps you remember reading about it in the papers last April.
I’m glad you are getting my letters now. My first one was delayed, because I couldn’t write on the night I arrived, & so missed
[page break]
3
Wednesday’s post, & the letter didn’t go until Thursday at 8.30 a.m.
You’re quite right about it not being very long now before I’m on leave again. With luck it won’t be much more than a month, but I’m just a bit doubtful whether the C.F.I. will approve of my going on leave almost as soon as I‘ve got back from this course. Still, we’ll see.
As for the house in Llanvetherine, of course I’m interested, but make sure that it really will do for you before you plunge. Any house that has only [deleted] [indecipherable letters] [/deleted] you & me in it will suit me down to the ground, because anyway I shall be in it only for short
[page break]
periods, but you’ll have to use it a good deal more than I shall, so it rests entirely with you. If you decide to try for it, pay for it whatever you fancy, and it will be O.K. with me. Actually, if it’s not too inconvenient, it should suit us admirably, especially since it’s reasonably close to Newhouse. But will your mother let you take it?
I quite appreciate, of course, how unsettled you feel because of the Ministry of Labour. They really are a pest, and I wish they’d make up their minds properly.
I think it would be better to do a Social Science certificate rather than a Froebel course, unless you are very keen on young children – which I somehow [deleted] dobut [/deleted] [inserted] doubt! [\inserted]
[page break]
5
I think the openings will be much better and the course more interesting. I think you’re right in doing no more about the Social Science until you know where you stand with the Ministry of Labour.
I’m setting off from here on Monday morning, & shall probably arrive at Cark in the small hours on Tuesday. I shall be gone before the post goes on Monday, so it will be as well if any letter which [deleted] d [/deleted] can’t get here for Saturday is sent to Cark.
I wish I could see you again darling.
All my love,
Harold.
Collection
Citation
Harold Gorton, “Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9195.
Item Relations
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