Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Title
Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Description
He writes of his social activities and flying. He also writes of the loss of 79 bombers.
Creator
Date
1944-02-29
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
EGortonHGortonLCM440229
Transcription
TEL. SILVERSTONE 252
OFFICERS’ MESS,
ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION,
[deleted] SILVERSTONE, [/deleted] [inserted] Turweston, [/inserted]
[deleted] NR. TOWCESTER, [/deleted] [inserted] Nr. Brackley, [/inserted]
NORTHANTS.
[Royal Air Force crest]
Tuesday 11.15 a.m.
Dearest,
I am supposed to be flying today, but there seems no chance of a trip at present, so I am spending the morning in front of a fire in the Intelligence Library – a very good place to be, since we had a very sharp frost last night.
Your letter arrived yesterday afternoon from Silverstone, & very welcome it was, too. I should have replied to it last night after dinner, but I was inveigled into a Bridge School that lasted until bed time. One of the four – he was my partner last night, - is pretty good & knows all about Culbertson etc. I kept getting into a flap in the later rounds of bidding, as I often didn’t have a clue as to what he was getting at. Still, we finished 1600 points up, the last hand being a five clubs call, in which our opponents didn’t even bother to play as we had everything! I wish I could have a game with you, though.
[page break]
2
There were some bridge scores on the back of that envelope you sent me, & they brought back some very happy memories.
I think I’ve already said I’d like to read the T.E. Lawrence book. I agree with you about “The Ship”. It wasn’t anything like so good as his other books.
I wish I could have been at the threshing, as I should have liked to see it. I imagine it became a bit unpleasant after the first few rats had been killed, though no doubt at first it would be rather exciting.
I think I’ve explained myself fairly well about your coming up here. My only objection is my memory of how you felt at Cark. It’s still very cold, however. I think it would pay you to wait until it is warmer.
I’m very glad you’ve got an answer to your advert. I don’t object to the price at all if you will be comfortable there. You could try it & still be able to give it up if we found a place near where I am. Also, if it is satisfactory, you could
[page break]
3
get a job in Cardiff. My own opinion is that the director of education there would be only too pleased to take you on in a secondary school. Anyway, the great thing to remember is that Cardiff is much easier to reach than small places that are nearer. From Grantham, for instance, it’s only 2 hrs to London and then 3 1/2 (?) to Cardiff.
As soon as I hear from you when you are coming here, I’ll fix up a place for you to stay, either in the Temperance Hotel or one of the others.
I should very much like to have my bike if it’s serviceable. I should have asked for it before, but I didn’t know how you could take it to the station. I thought that if I asked for it, you would put yourself to a lot of inconvenience, trying to get it to Abergavenny. The position is that I can manage O.K. without one, although it takes
[page break]
4
more time to get about, naturally. The really big advantage of a bike is that I can go to Brackley on it for shopping or to go to the station, if I should happen to get some time off. However, don’t worry about it. If there should happen to be a convenient means of getting it to Abergavenny, then I should like it. If not, it doesn’t matter.
As for that loss of 79 bombers, my own opinion is (a) it was just one of the chances of war that one can’t guard against, (b) some of the aircraft were too early, & thus more exposed to attacks (there’s safety in numbers).
All my love, darling,
Harold
OFFICERS’ MESS,
ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION,
[deleted] SILVERSTONE, [/deleted] [inserted] Turweston, [/inserted]
[deleted] NR. TOWCESTER, [/deleted] [inserted] Nr. Brackley, [/inserted]
NORTHANTS.
[Royal Air Force crest]
Tuesday 11.15 a.m.
Dearest,
I am supposed to be flying today, but there seems no chance of a trip at present, so I am spending the morning in front of a fire in the Intelligence Library – a very good place to be, since we had a very sharp frost last night.
Your letter arrived yesterday afternoon from Silverstone, & very welcome it was, too. I should have replied to it last night after dinner, but I was inveigled into a Bridge School that lasted until bed time. One of the four – he was my partner last night, - is pretty good & knows all about Culbertson etc. I kept getting into a flap in the later rounds of bidding, as I often didn’t have a clue as to what he was getting at. Still, we finished 1600 points up, the last hand being a five clubs call, in which our opponents didn’t even bother to play as we had everything! I wish I could have a game with you, though.
[page break]
2
There were some bridge scores on the back of that envelope you sent me, & they brought back some very happy memories.
I think I’ve already said I’d like to read the T.E. Lawrence book. I agree with you about “The Ship”. It wasn’t anything like so good as his other books.
I wish I could have been at the threshing, as I should have liked to see it. I imagine it became a bit unpleasant after the first few rats had been killed, though no doubt at first it would be rather exciting.
I think I’ve explained myself fairly well about your coming up here. My only objection is my memory of how you felt at Cark. It’s still very cold, however. I think it would pay you to wait until it is warmer.
I’m very glad you’ve got an answer to your advert. I don’t object to the price at all if you will be comfortable there. You could try it & still be able to give it up if we found a place near where I am. Also, if it is satisfactory, you could
[page break]
3
get a job in Cardiff. My own opinion is that the director of education there would be only too pleased to take you on in a secondary school. Anyway, the great thing to remember is that Cardiff is much easier to reach than small places that are nearer. From Grantham, for instance, it’s only 2 hrs to London and then 3 1/2 (?) to Cardiff.
As soon as I hear from you when you are coming here, I’ll fix up a place for you to stay, either in the Temperance Hotel or one of the others.
I should very much like to have my bike if it’s serviceable. I should have asked for it before, but I didn’t know how you could take it to the station. I thought that if I asked for it, you would put yourself to a lot of inconvenience, trying to get it to Abergavenny. The position is that I can manage O.K. without one, although it takes
[page break]
4
more time to get about, naturally. The really big advantage of a bike is that I can go to Brackley on it for shopping or to go to the station, if I should happen to get some time off. However, don’t worry about it. If there should happen to be a convenient means of getting it to Abergavenny, then I should like it. If not, it doesn’t matter.
As for that loss of 79 bombers, my own opinion is (a) it was just one of the chances of war that one can’t guard against, (b) some of the aircraft were too early, & thus more exposed to attacks (there’s safety in numbers).
All my love, darling,
Harold
Collection
Citation
Harold Gorton, “Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9210.
Item Relations
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