Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Title
Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife
Description
He writes of his car purchase and his colleagues and of his course at RAF Wigsley.
Creator
Date
1944-06-04
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Seven 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
EGortonHGortonLCM440604
Transcription
[Royal Air Force crest]
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
SCAMPTON,
LINCS.
‘PHONE: SCAMPTON 226.
4/6/44.
Dearest,
Your welcome letter arrived today (Sunday) strangely enough. As you can imagine, I was a bit peeved with the Norwich Union for not letting us have a cover note, although grateful to you for all the trouble you’ve taken.
As you suggested, I’ve decided to scrub the Norwich Union, mainly because I want the car on the road for Wednesday, [inserted] & [/inserted] I can’t manage it if I’ve got to write to Cardiff.
After dinner tonight I cycled out to Cammeringham to ask Swaby about the
[page break]
2
insurance. He said
(a) that he knew a man in Lincoln who would fix me up with a cover note for tomorrow afternoon
(b) that even if a certificate of roadworthiness were needed, there would be no trouble about it since when he bought the car he took it to a garage to have it overhauled (engine, dynamo, gear box, & back axle) & the man there would have no hesitation in signing a certificate.
Anyway, after they’d forced me to stay & have supper, I came away with the log book in my pocket. Swaby is to ring me up at lunch time
[page break]
3
tomorrow, & confirm that he has fixed things up with the insurance people. Then I shall cut lectures and go into Lincoln & tax the car. If possible, I shall catch the 4.8 [inserted] bus [/inserted] from Lincoln out to Cammeringham & drive the car back to camp tomorrow night.
This week-end has certainly been a car week-end. Three officers on the course went home on Friday night to bring their cars back.
F/O W – brought his 1937 Morris 8 back from Manchester without incident
[page break]
4
except that he tried to take a short cut & found himself faced with the alternatives of swimming the Trent or going back 10 miles.
F/o F – brought a Singer Le Mans sports car from London. He was O.K. except that he ran out of petrol at one stage & had to push the car 3 miles before he could buy some petrol.
P/o B – had just learned to drive & on the strength of that had bought a 1931 Rover 10 for £17..10..0. He was coming from London too, but got lost & spent the night at an aerodrome near Cambridge,
[page break]
5
since he too had run out of petrol. He arrived here at tea time today, & has to report to the C.O. tomorrow. He is so fed up with his car after one journey that he wants to sell it!
Actually, I think my car will bear comparison with any of those three.
Before I leave the subject of the Swabys I should say that Mrs. Swaby said we could spend a week-end at her home (they’ve got a spare room with a 3/4 size bed) any time we want – that’s if you don’t mind the presence
[page break]
6
of two young children in the house.
We go to Wigsley on Wednesday, for 36 days solid without a day off. The first 14 days we do lectures from 8.15 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., & then we start flying. At the end of the course, we get seven days leave.
While I was in Lincoln yesterday I saw a R.A.F. officer who looked familiar. He came across the street to speak to me & it turned out to be none other than Botting, now S/Ldr! He is stationed just outside Lincoln, but he has done very well, because he can only have been
[page break]
7
on Ops for a month at the outside. He asked me to go & have lunch with him tomorrow or Tuesday but I doubt if I’ll be able to manage it.
He asked most kindly after you, as did also Mr. Bruce, whose letter I got yesterday.
I’m enclosing the latest Bank statement, which agrees pretty well with what I said, I think.
It’s getting late now (11.40 p.m.) so I’ll stop.
All my love, darling,
Harold.
ROYAL AIR FORCE,
SCAMPTON,
LINCS.
‘PHONE: SCAMPTON 226.
4/6/44.
Dearest,
Your welcome letter arrived today (Sunday) strangely enough. As you can imagine, I was a bit peeved with the Norwich Union for not letting us have a cover note, although grateful to you for all the trouble you’ve taken.
As you suggested, I’ve decided to scrub the Norwich Union, mainly because I want the car on the road for Wednesday, [inserted] & [/inserted] I can’t manage it if I’ve got to write to Cardiff.
After dinner tonight I cycled out to Cammeringham to ask Swaby about the
[page break]
2
insurance. He said
(a) that he knew a man in Lincoln who would fix me up with a cover note for tomorrow afternoon
(b) that even if a certificate of roadworthiness were needed, there would be no trouble about it since when he bought the car he took it to a garage to have it overhauled (engine, dynamo, gear box, & back axle) & the man there would have no hesitation in signing a certificate.
Anyway, after they’d forced me to stay & have supper, I came away with the log book in my pocket. Swaby is to ring me up at lunch time
[page break]
3
tomorrow, & confirm that he has fixed things up with the insurance people. Then I shall cut lectures and go into Lincoln & tax the car. If possible, I shall catch the 4.8 [inserted] bus [/inserted] from Lincoln out to Cammeringham & drive the car back to camp tomorrow night.
This week-end has certainly been a car week-end. Three officers on the course went home on Friday night to bring their cars back.
F/O W – brought his 1937 Morris 8 back from Manchester without incident
[page break]
4
except that he tried to take a short cut & found himself faced with the alternatives of swimming the Trent or going back 10 miles.
F/o F – brought a Singer Le Mans sports car from London. He was O.K. except that he ran out of petrol at one stage & had to push the car 3 miles before he could buy some petrol.
P/o B – had just learned to drive & on the strength of that had bought a 1931 Rover 10 for £17..10..0. He was coming from London too, but got lost & spent the night at an aerodrome near Cambridge,
[page break]
5
since he too had run out of petrol. He arrived here at tea time today, & has to report to the C.O. tomorrow. He is so fed up with his car after one journey that he wants to sell it!
Actually, I think my car will bear comparison with any of those three.
Before I leave the subject of the Swabys I should say that Mrs. Swaby said we could spend a week-end at her home (they’ve got a spare room with a 3/4 size bed) any time we want – that’s if you don’t mind the presence
[page break]
6
of two young children in the house.
We go to Wigsley on Wednesday, for 36 days solid without a day off. The first 14 days we do lectures from 8.15 a.m. to 6.30 p.m., & then we start flying. At the end of the course, we get seven days leave.
While I was in Lincoln yesterday I saw a R.A.F. officer who looked familiar. He came across the street to speak to me & it turned out to be none other than Botting, now S/Ldr! He is stationed just outside Lincoln, but he has done very well, because he can only have been
[page break]
7
on Ops for a month at the outside. He asked me to go & have lunch with him tomorrow or Tuesday but I doubt if I’ll be able to manage it.
He asked most kindly after you, as did also Mr. Bruce, whose letter I got yesterday.
I’m enclosing the latest Bank statement, which agrees pretty well with what I said, I think.
It’s getting late now (11.40 p.m.) so I’ll stop.
All my love, darling,
Harold.
Collection
Citation
Harold Gorton, “Letter from Harold Gorton to his wife,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/9244.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.