Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife

He writes of the weather and his orderly officer duties.

1944-05-28

Two handwritten sheets

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EGortonHGortonLCM440528-0001,
EGortonHGortonLCM440528-0002

Brackley 191
Royal Air Force,
Turweston,
Brackley,
Northants.
Scampton
Sunday 28/5/44.
Dearest,
This week-end is marvellously hot. I just wish you could get in the car & we could go down to some beach & bathe. It would be wizard, wouldn’t it?
I am doing a little more scrounging than usual today, as I am Orderly Officer. Strictly speaking I shouldn’t do it now I am a F/L., but I thought they might find something more unpleasant for me to do if I tried to get out of it. As a result, I spent the morning reading the papers in the Mess, & this afternoon I’ve been lying on my bed, reading, as I thought it was too hot for sun bathing.
I went into Lincoln yesterday morning to do some shopping & the place was chaotic. It’s more crowded than any town I’ve ever seen, I think, though I expect it was worse yesterday because of Whitsun.
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2.
The Wing co has heard of a furnished house to let in Lincoln at 3 gns., & he is off to try & get it this afternoon. I told him to let me know if he doesn’t want it, but he thinks there are already 3 R.A.F. in for it before him, so that he hasn’t a chance.
Yesterday afternoon I went out to Cammeringham again, & stayed for tea. He says he’ll give me a couple of gallons when I take it away, & I’ve also arranged to get 4 new tyres – motor cycle tyres, which are the same size. They are about 30/- each.
He himself has two children 22 months & 3 months old. It was rather funny to see the reactions of a man & his wife who were visiting there at the same time. They were thrilled by these two babies & kept making cracks at one another re their own childless state. I rather imagine there’s a family conflict there, - one of them wanting children & the other
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3
other [sic] refusing to agree; or it may be that they’d tried & hadn’t been successful.
We’ve not heard definitely yet whether we are getting a 48 this week-end, but I still think it’s a ten to one chance on it.
I wish I was with you this afternoon, sitting in the fields, enjoying the sunshine. It’s very cheesing to be away from you so much, isn’t it.
All my love,
Harold.
Monday lunch time
Have just learned that we shall get no 48 after all. They now say that we get one after 3 weeks & not after 2, as we were told when we first arrived.