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25
44
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Redgrave, Henry Cecil
H C Redgrave
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. The collection concerns Henry Cecil Redgrave (743047, Royal Air Force) and contains his decorations, letters and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 207 Squadron from RAF Waddington. He was killed 13/14 March 1941. <br /><br />The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pam Isaac and catalogued by Barry Hunter.<br /><br /><span>Additional information on Henry Cecil Redgrave is available via the </span><a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/119457/">IBCC Losses Database</a><span>.</span>
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-10-02
Rights
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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.
Identifier
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Redgrave, HC
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
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[postmark]
[postage stamp]
[inserted] [place names] [/inserted]
Mrs. H. C. Redgrave,
c/o Mrs Bough,
26 Queens Road,
Teddington,
Middx.
[page break]
743047 L.A.C. Redgrave H.C.
Hut D1
R.A.F. Station
Warmwell
Nr. Dorset
Mon 3 June
Dear Jessie,
I hope you have got over your journey of Saturday and are beginning to feel resigned at leaving the bungalow. We have just finished our first day of training and I am going to spend the evening writing and resting.
Yesterday evening a party of us walked down to the local which is apparently the only place apart from Weymouth and Dorchester to go to. Tom probably knows it quite well [sic] the “Frampton Arms” and the next nearest pubs are three miles away which would involve a walk of nearly six miles to get any sort of a change of scenery during weekday evenings. I think the ENSA and NAAFI hold a number of shows hear [sic] so maybe it wont [sic] be too dull. Theres [sic] one on tonight The Pilgrim Players doing “Tobias and the Angel” but I am so hard up I just cant [sic] afford to go.
There was an air raid warning hear [sic] last night and about [deleted] haf [/deleted] half past twelve we had to get some clothes on and find our way to our shelter in pitch dark and only half awake and sit underground in the pitch black for about forty five minutes. Talk about a to do. [sic] We cussed
[page break]
2
like the devil and made no end of noise getting out of our huts and yet when the all clear was sounded and we got back the huts the lad in the next bed to mine was still fast asleep and knew nothing about the raid.
The food here has been very good up to now and now I getting [sic] a bit more used to it the huts [deleted] arne [/deleted] are not so bad. Unfortunately there is never any hot water in the wash places and no baths only cold showers. If it keeps as hot as this it wont [sic] be too bad although I must say I don’t think a lot of shaving in cold water.
Getting down to more serious things you must tell me a lot more about how things were left in Southend. Did you tell the building society or Mr Tickett. [sic] If not I must explain things to the A.R. and ask Mr Tickett to pick up my byke [sic] before it is pinched. [smudged] Do [/smudged] the corporation know anything about the rates. It seems you are going to have a lot to write to me in the next few days. Tell me all you can and I will try and fix things up the best I can.
I think you must give up any thoughts of living round this way unless you care to get in touch with Joyce and arrange some means of living between here and Hamble together where the saving in living costs would enable Tom and I to visit you on Sundays or for you and Joyce to go to see your husbands near their stations. Theres [sic] absolutely no living accomodation [sic] near hear [sic] as we are miles out in the country.
[page break]
3
Our course may be cut to six weeks and there is a possibility of a week end [sic] leave at the end so keep smiling dear. I may be with you sooner than you think. Rather a lot of chaps leave this station for places out East such as Singapore and Egypt so you must be prepared for me to be leaving the country altogether soon darling but wherever I go dear you know I shall always be with you in my thoughts and dreams.
Pamela looked very well on Saturday and I hope she is being a good girl at Teddington. I wonder whether she realy [sic] remembered me. All the chaps thought she was a fine baby and a credit to you. I’m glad she is too young to understand all the troubles besetting the world just now and hope she is spared any of its horrors. Where has Gwen gone to and how is my nephew Robert.
Give my love to Aunt Nellie and Uncle Frank and my cousins and tell [inserted] them [/inserted] I will write very soon. I hope Mums [sic] bronchitis is getting better and that she is not upset by the move. Will you ask Joyce for Toms address.
Its time I had my shave and made my bed so I must pack up now. All my love to you and Pamela and I do hope everything turns out for the best.
Always your loving husband
Harry. xxxxx
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
To Jessie from Harry Redgrave
Description
An account of the resource
A letter and envelope from Harry Redgrave to Jessie. Harry writes about life at RAF Warmwell including his training, an air raid exercise and his social life. Jessie and Pamela have left their home in Southend and is staying with relatives in Teddington.
Creator
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Harry Redgrave
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-03
Format
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Three handwritten sheets and an envelope
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
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ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400603-0001,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400603-0002,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400603-0003,
ERedgraveHCRedgraveJM400603-0004
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Dorset
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
aircrew
military living conditions
RAF Warmwell
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1232/15141/PGrundyAF15010004.1.jpg
d53bcd8ad8674d61ceb0c15cfe7d5a6d
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Photograph of Fifteen personnel and identity card for Section Officer J Donaldson
Description
An account of the resource
Top - eight members of Women's Auxiliary Air Force and seven Royal Air Force officers in two rows. Seven sitting in front and eight standing behind. All are wearing tunics and peaked hats. Joyce Donaldson is third from the right back row. There is one padre in back row. In the background a wooden fence. Bottom - Identity Card for RAF and WAAF personnel (all ranks) made out to Section Officer Donaldson (Edwards crossed out) at Bentley Priory and Mildenhall.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-24
1940-08-03
Format
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One b/w photograph and one printed document mounted on an album page
Language
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eng
Type
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Photograph
Text
Text. Service material
Identifier
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PGrundyAF15010004
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Suffolk
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
1940-07
1940-08
Rights
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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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
faith
ground personnel
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Mildenhall
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1096/11555/ARichGW180417.1.mp3
1dfb5b93d5b8a4c1cd76f00dfc7569d9
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Rich, Wilfred
W Rich
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Joe Rich (b. 1941). His father, Wilfred Rich (b. 1905) flew operations as a mid-upper gunner with 103 Squadron and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-04-17
Rights
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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.
Identifier
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Rich, WD
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Other: Hang on-
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 17th of April 2018, and I’m in Hove with Gerry Rich, whose father, Wilfred Rich, was a mid-upper gunner in 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds. What were the original- What was the earliest information you have about your father? What his parents did and so on?
GR: That was as a child, I remember my father telling me that his father had been in the army and I seem to remember him telling me that he was a professor of music at the royal military school of music. I know that he was very much into music, my grandfather, because when he, when he finally passed away, he left my father a lot of books on all the great composers, you know, which, which my father was interested in. My grandmother was just an ordinary housewife, and they lived out their retirement years in Belgravia in London. That is, that is as much as I know-
CB: Yeah, yeah.
GR: -you know, about my grandparents.
CB: Ok.
GR: [Coughs] excuse me.
CB: And where was your father born?
GR: My father was born in Southsea in Hampshire, on the 3rd of January 1905.
CB: And what was, what was his father doing then?
GR: His father was in the army.
CB: He was in the army then as well?
GR: He was in the army then, yeah.
CB: Right, ok, and where did he go to school?
GR: Again, I'm not sure, but I’m just assuming that it was in Southsea, although obviously being in the army they travelled around quite a bit and he probably had various schools that he went to.
CB: Yeah.
GR: I mean in one period I know they were over in Ireland during the Irish rebellion in 1917 I think it was. So, he would’ve still been at school then. No- Yes, he would-
CB: No, he won’t, will he. Oh, yeah, he will, yes because he was born in 1905, yes, he’d be ten.
GR: He would’ve been still at school then, he was born in 1905. But again, I don’t, I don’t know.
CB: Ok.
GR: Literally don’t know.
CB: So, school leaving age in those days was fourteen, what did he- Did he leave school then do you think?
GR: Again, that is a complete, complete blank. I don’t know, I’ve got very little knowledge of his early life. I only know about his war years and, you know, various snippets of information.
CB: When did he join the RAF?
GR: He joined the RAF in January 1920, and he went to Cranwell as a boy, entered at fifteen, and he stayed there till around about 1927 when he left, and I believe came out of the air force, went into civilian life but trained as an air frame fitter and a rigger in- While he was at Cranwell I believe. But from 1927 onwards when he came out, again, my knowledge of what he did was, was very, very sketchy. He didn’t, he didn’t divulge a lot, you know.
CB: And when did he re-join?
GR: He re-joined in 1940.
CB: We’ll pause there for a mo.
GR: He went in- He re-joined the air force on the 20th of June 1940 at Cardington and then went to the 7- No 7 reception centre on the 23rd of June and on the 12th, I think it was, of July that year he went to No 9 school of tactical[?] training, stayed there until the- Round about the 22nd of November in 1940 again, where he joined 13th maintenance unit. Then on the 29th of October in 1941, he was posted to Iceland. Then- He was there until- I think it was about the 6th of March 1942 when he joined 56 Squadron, and on the 6th of August 1942 he’d been admitted into hospital at Ealing.
CB: Ely?
GR: Ely, I beg your pardon, Ely, and then discharged on the 17th of August ‘42 [unclear]. When he was discharged from hospital, he went to the AFDU, the air fighting development unit at Abbey Lodge and he went there on the 29th of November 1943 and then from there he went to 151, er 15 initial training wing where, his [chuckles] his love of being up in the air, which started when he was at Cranwell, when he was taken up in an Avro 504K and immediately fell in love with flying. That was rekindled, and then from there, on the 12th of February 1944 he went to No 1 air gunnery school and on the 30th of May ‘44, the operational training unit, and that was No 26 operational training unit. Right, so we started initial training wing.
CB: So, he’s in gunnery?
GR: Gunnery school, No 2 air gunnery school.
CB: So, he went to the operational training unit?
GR: Went to the operational training unit where, he knew he couldn’t be a pilot so- He still desperately wanted to fly so he decided to become a gunner and train for that.
CB: So, the operational training unit is before they go to the squadron.
GR: Right.
CB: We’ll just stop there a mo.
GR: Did I mention that before he went to the OTU?
CB: Yeah. So, we’re on the OTU, so what did he do at the OTU?
GR: At the OTU, he- They were- He was trained on Wellingtons and it’s where they were crewed up and that was carried out by placing all the aircrew’s, all the different roles, in a hanger and they managed to sort themselves out and form a crew. From there they went to the heavy conversion unit where they were trained on Lancasters, and from there they were posted- Or he was posted to 103 Squadron.
CB: When was that?
GR: That was in- On the 3rd of November 1944.
CB: Right, ok. So, what detail do you have about the operations they did?
GR: What, when he was shot down [unclear]?
CB: You’ve got a list of operations, haven’t you?
GR: Ah yes. He flew nineteen operations with 103 Squadron. The first one was on the 18th of November 1944, which is when ICOL[?] and the last one was on the 23rd of February 1945 Pforzheim where he was shot down and taken prisoner. And then he served the last months of the war out in a German prisoner of war camp and he was- He came back to this country in abut May 1945, I think.
CB: Good, and you’ve got a picture there, what’s that picture?
GR: The picture here is of him, taken at the German prisoner of war camp and-
CB: That’s part of his ID card?
GR: No, that’s-
CB: It’s not?
GR: That was taken by the German officials at the prisoner of war camp, with a number at the bottom, 11915, which I should imagine was his, his number which they gave him at the prisoner of war camp and as I say, he stayed there. He- A little story, while he was there, being very clever with his hands [coughs] excuse me- Being very clever with his hands, he made a telescopic toasting fork out of barbed wire which he managed to acquire from the fencing around the prison [chuckles] and, I don’t know what happened to it but it was quite something. A three pronged- Like a trident. Funnily enough, I remember us, after the war, using it to toast bread in front of the fire. But, as I say he was very clever with his hands having originally been an airframe fitter and a rigger and- He carried that, that skill right through his life.
CB: Yeah.
GR: He was always making things.
CB: What did he say about his experiences in the prisoner of war camp?
GR: Very little, if nothing at all. He did mention the fact that there was a separate compound in the prisoner of war camp for Russian prisoners who were treated very badly. There was no love lost between the Germans and the Russians, you know, especially the military personnel and he said they were treated really badly. But, apart from that he didn’t say anything, you know, didn’t say how he was treated whether it was badly or good or- I do remember him telling me that after he was shot down, he, he managed- He landed in Pforzheim, right in the centre while the air raid was going on, and he was caught by the local authorities, the local police or something, and handed over to the military and they made him stand in the town square while they covered him with fire arms from a safe point. I remember him saying that that was a very uncomfortable experience, and then they, they took him to a Luftwaffe base, where he was treated really well and he was interviewed by a German- A Luftwaffe officer who asked the normal questions, where are you based? What aircraft? You know, how many there? And etcetera. But he said, ‘All I can give is my name rank and number’, and he gave him his name, rank and number and the chap who spoke perfect English, and apparently was educated at Oxford said, ‘That’s alright old chap, no problem at all’.
CB: [Chuckles]
GR: And, before he left, because apparently they were marched down to the prison camp and I think he was saying it took about three days to march, and they gave them a slap-up meal at the Luftwaffe base before they went, which quite amazed him actually after what they’d done, you know, and after that obviously forgiven, as they used to say, ‘The war was over’, you know, and then he was repatriated in, in May and that was his war as experienced in the air force and of course he come out into civilian life then.
CB: Was the camp a Luftwaffe, a Stalag Luft camp or was it plain Stalag?
GR: Stalag Luft, it was a Stalag Luft. No, Stalag Luft, I think. Seem to remember him saying that.
CB: Right.
GR: But I couldn’t- I did try and chase it up online and talking to various people but I couldn’t, and the web master and the editor of the magazine up at Elsham, Keith McCray, he said that that’s often the case because as the allies advanced through Germany, when they came across, across a prisoner of war camp, the German authorities would destroy all records. So that’s probably how.
CB: Mhmm.
GR: Or the main reason why we don’t know where he was.
CB: How did he get out of the camp?
GR: He was repatriated by the Americans I believe, who were advancing through that part of Germany, and he got out that way and eventually got back to the UK and, as I say, demobbed in May. Although, it wasn’t May actually, he got back in May and I think it was later in the year that he was demobbed and I can’t remember exactly when.
CB: What about the conditions in the camp, any idea?
GR: No, again he didn’t say, he didn’t talk about it, so I’ve no idea what the conditions were like. I should imagine they were pretty uncomfortable, but I just don’t know for sure.
CB: OK, we’ll stop there for a mo. When did you say he was demobbed?
GR: I think it must’ve been-
CB: Does it say there? I imagine they demobbed him quite quickly. Do you know how he got back? Did they fly him back? See where I am, near Aylesbury is Westcott. Now, Westcott and Oakley (the nearby airfield) received between them fifty-four-thousand POW’s, flown in by aircraft. It would be interesting to know whether he came in that way.
GR: Again, that, that- It’s a blank, I don’t know.
CB: Yeah, it doesn't matter.
GR: I don’t know.
CB: But he was demobbed in ‘45 was it?
GR: In ‘45 yeah.
CB: Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
CB: They tended to demob there prisoners first because of the conditions they’d been in.
GR: Yeah, it looks as though it might’ve been August 1945 he was demobbed.
CB: Ok. Now, what do you know about what he did when he left the RAF? Did he immediately go into something, or what happened? Did the family- Before, I'm not, I'm not rolling it yet.
GR: I, I was still very young so I don’t really know. I know that he was in the catering industry, hotels and that, and they got an idea, went back into that. But we, we were living in North [coughs] pardon me. We were living in Northampton at the time, and we moved down to London so he could find work.
CB: Yeah.
GR: But he was away quite a bit, so I should imagine he got a job which necessitated him being away from home.
CB: Mhmm, was the whole, the whole of his life after the war, was in catering, was it?
GR: Yeah, he, he, he didn’t have a career as such
CB: Ok, let’s- We might as well get this. So you were born in the war? Where, where-
GR: I was born in [unclear]
CB: In ‘41.
GR: I was born in 1941 in Northampton.
CB: Where were you and your mother living during the war?
GR: Northampton.
CB: Right, why was that? What was the significance of Northampton?
GR: I don’t know, I don’t know [chuckles] quite honestly. We- It’s where we were, I’ve got, I’ve got a recollection of bombers flying over Northampton where, you know, we heard them where we were living and the sirens went off and my mother grabbing me and diving under the kitchen table [laughs], you know, for protection, although that wouldn't've given us much protection but, we did- Before we moved down to London, we went to my mother’s family, in a village called Flitwick in Bedfordshire, near Ampthill, and we stayed there for some time, until my father was demobbed, and then we all moved down to London.
CB: So, when he was demobbed, what job did he do?
GR: He went- He didn’t go back to his old job, so I think he just looked for a new job in catering, you know, somewhere down south, because he did work in the Northampton area before when he was in the hotel catering sort of line but, again, my, my knowledge is very, very sketchy. Simply because he didn’t tell me and I was too young to cotton on, you know, to what was happening.
CB: And what age did he retire?
GR: He retired at sixty-five
CB: Right
GR: But unfortunately, he died at seventy-three in 1978.
CB: Right.
GR: But I think- Looking back, I think the war took a lot out of him and it really knocked him for six, you know, as it did a lot of aircrew that survived, and I was never really close to my father. So, he didn’t confide in people much, he used to play his cards very close to his chest, you know, so- And that, that’s about all I can say, you know.
CB: How much do you think your mother knew about what he’d been doing, in the war?
GR: [Sighs] I don’t know what he told her. I, I should imagine she knew quite a bit. She knew- She must’ve realised what flying a bomber over Germany, you know, was all about and the risks involved.
CB: Well, he was quite an old man as far as- In terms of air force ages ‘cause he was forty when he was shot down.
GR: That’s right.
CB: Next day. So- Do you know what the reaction of the crew was to the difference in age?
GR: Well, I know the pilot- The pilot, Cliff Hart, was Australian, was in Royal Australian Air Force, and so was the- I think the wireless operator Angus- Trying to think of his name now. Angus McGrath, he was Australian, and they unfortunately both died when the aircraft was shot down.
CB: How many survivors were there in the-
GR: Pardon?
CB: How many survivors were there from-
GR: Five, there were five survivors.
CB: Right. But they were, they were both killed those two?
GR: They were both killed, they went down with the aircraft, but they never actually found the spot where they went down.
CB: Ok, stop there. The early parts you spoke of then, your father had been on a charge for doing something with his motorbike, what was that?
GR: Ah yeah, he, he was fined a pound for riding a motorcycle without lights on, and also, a short while afterwards he was fined three pounds for riding a motorcycle without a license [chuckles] so, he could be a bit of a bad boy at times.
CB: This is in the early days of him being in the RAF?
GR: That’s right, yeah. That was when he was quite young.
CB: Yeah, where was that?
GR: I believe, I think it was Biggleswade
CB: Right
GR: Mentioned Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, so- And I remember when he was in- He was based in Norfolk in the early part of the war, I think it was a place called Matlaske, Matlaske? But anyway, he was based in Norfolk and he was fined fifteen shillings for riding a bicycle [chuckles] without lights, so- He had his tanner[?] for breaking the road traffic laws.
CB: Yeah
GR: But, apart from that, I know very little about what-
CB: Did your mother ever talk about- To you, about what your father did in the war?
GR: No, never
CB: Did you ever ask her?
GR: No, I was too young at the time, remember I was born in-
CB: I’m thinking later years?
GR: Later years? No, no. No. He kept quiet, so I just didn’t ask, you know, it wasn’t a question of, ‘What did you do in the war Daddy?’, you know, it was, it was accepted that we don’t talk about it.
CB: Yeah
GR: And I think, one offshoot which I didn’t mention before was that my sister, went into the women’s air force for a short while, and I think that’s because my father was, was in the air force himself, I think that had a lot to do with her going in.
CB: You’ve got quite an interesting bunch of pictures there, and cards. What are they?
GR: These are all postcard size pictures which somehow my father had taken when he was a prisoner, or just after and they’re various pictures of the war from a German point of view, actual photographs I think taken, some of the Russian army, others of damage caused by the conflict, a couple of them are hand drawn coloured postcards which are obviously propaganda material but, I've no idea how he came to have them, no idea whatsoever, but they were in his [unclear] when he died, plus there was a Christmas dinner menu from 1941 at the RAF station Reykjavík in Iceland, which has been signed by quite a few people that he obviously knew when they were there, from various parts of the country. Also, another Christmas menu from RAF Bridlington, Christmas Day 1943 and a telegram, which my mother received from Elsham Wolds telling her that, and I quote, informing her that her husband, ‘Wilfred Dudley Rich is reported missing from operation on the night of the 23rd/24th of February 1945, letter follows immediately’, stop, ‘Any other information received will be communicated to you immediately’, stop, ‘Pending receipt of written notification from air ministry, no information should be given to the press’, and that was the telegram she received. Also, I have a ticket here issued by RAF personnel, third class return from Northampton to Stamford and Stamford back to Northampton, and that was dated the 7th of September 1943.
CB: What was the significance of going to Stamford, do you know?
GR: I haven’t the vaguest idea. Lincolnshire-
CB: Yeah
GR: I don’t know what was at Stamford
CB: Yeah
GR: He was stationed at Elsham Wolds and they used to go to Barnaby, Barnaby the Wald which is a station which is no longer there now, and also I have his national registration identity card, which shows his whereabouts, addresses- Various addresses he lived at, and stamps, the first one was issued ’45. This must’ve been after he came out of services. ‘Cause they’re stamped ’45 and ’46.
CB: Ok
GR: And the rest, the rest of his affects are on display in the memorial room at Elsham Wolds
CB: Which is the squadron base?
GR: That- Which is the old squadron base.
CB: 103 Squadron
GR: It’s on the corner of the old aerodrome
CB: Is it, yeah. What have they got? An old Nissen hut? Or, what’s it in?
GR: No, the- Anglian Water treatment works are there and they’ve allocated a room for the association where they can display all their memorabilia and- You know, information about people who served there and [unclear] very interesting.
CB: What sort of stuff does it have in it?
GR: It’s got countless stuff, old stuff from Lancaster bombers, it’s got the instrument panel from a Lancaster in there, got various parts of the mechanics on a Lancaster, various uniforms, records of people that served there, lots of memorabilia, you know, information about people who served there and died, you know, were killed on operations. It is very interesting, and right next door to it they’ve got a memorial guard to 103 Squadron and 576 Squadron who were both based there.
CB: Thank you.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Gerald Rich
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-04-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ARichGW180417
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:30:10 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Second generation
Description
An account of the resource
Gerald’s father, Wilfred, joined the Royal Air Force in January 1920 and stayed until about 1927 training as an aircraft fitter. He re-joined in June 1940 at RAF Cardington. In 1944, upon completion of training, he went to No. 1 Air Gunnery School and three months later to No 26 Operational Training Unit working on Wellingtons and crewing up. From there they went to the Heavy Conversion Unit training on Lancasters before joining 103 Squadron on at RAF Elsham Wolds on 3 November 1944. Wilfred flew 19 operations. He was shot down in February 1945, aged 40, being one of the five survivors. He served out the rest of the war in a German prisoner of war camp and was repatriated in about May 1945 and demobbed some months later. Gerald believes his father went back into the catering industry, retiring at the age of 65. He died aged 73 in 1978.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
Tilly Foster
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Pforzheim
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1920
1927
1940-06
1941
1942
1943
1944-11-03
1945-02-23
1945-02-24
1945-05
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
103 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
crewing up
Lancaster
prisoner of war
RAF Cardington
RAF Elsham Wolds
shot down
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/380/6854/PHattersleyC16030007.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hattersley, Peter
Peter Hattersley
C R Hattersley
Charles Raymond Hattersley
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The collection concerns Wing Commander Charles Raymond Hattersley DFC (1914-1948, 800429, 40699 Royal Air Force). Peter Hattersley served in the Royal Engineers between 1930 and 1935 but enlisted in the RAF in 1936. He trained as a pilot and flew with 106, 44 and 199 Squadrons. He completed 32 operations with 44 Squadron but had to force land his Wellington in France on his first operation with 199 Squadron in December 1942. He became a prisoner of war. He married Miss Kathleen Hattersley nee Croft after the war. The collection contains his logbook, notebooks, service material, his decorations and items of memorabilia in a tin box and 39 photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Charles William Hattersley and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-06
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hattersley, CR
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Kathleen Croft
Description
An account of the resource
A portrait of a woman in Women's Auxiliary Air Force uniform seated on a small table. Her hands are folded in front of her on top of her hat. On the reverse '[undecipherable] Taken at Ely June 1940' and '1-11-6'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PHattersleyC16030007, PHattersleyC16030008
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Ely
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
ground personnel
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hampden aircraft and crews
Description
An account of the resource
Left page.
Top left - head and shoulders portrait of Sergeant Stephen Dawson wearing tunic with pilot brevet and side cap. Captioned 'Brand new wings, June 40'. Top right - looking down on aircrew wearing flying helmet in the rear gunners position on a Hampden. Captioned 'Monkey Phipps and twin VGOs'. On the reverse 'Sgt Phipps, 1st W/Op and A/G after Sgt Campbell'.
Bottom left - looking down on aircrew wearing flying helmet in the rear gunners position of a Hampden. Captioned 'Paddy Campbell in the cupola'. On the reverse 'Sgt Campbell, 1st wireless operator and air gunner'. Bottom right - half length portrait of a sergeant sitting wearing tunic with pilots brevet. Captioned 'Laurie Hinde'. On the reverse 'Laurie Hinde, 2nd pilot and navigator'.
Right page.
Top - a Hampden with squadron letters 'VN' standing on dispersal with hedge and building in the background. Captioned 'F for Freddie, the kite'.
Middle - four aircrew wearing flying jackets standing by the wing root of a Hampden with aircraft letter 'F'. Captioned 'The crew, Sgt Campbell - lower gunner and second W/Op, Sgt Phipps - W/Op and upper gunner, Sgt Dawson - captain and pilot, Sgt Hinde - navigator bomb aimer and second pilot'. On the reverse 'L-R, Sgt Campbell W/Op, Sgt Phipps, lower gunner (now W/Op), Self, pilot, Sgt Hinde, navigator'.
Bottom - four airmen sitting on top of a Hampden parked on dispersal. Captioned 'The ground crew'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Seven b/w photographs mounted on two album pages
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PDawsonSR16010417, PDawsonSR16010418, PDawsonSR16010419, PDawsonSR16010420, PDawsonSR16010421, PDawsonSR16010422, PDawsonSR16010423, PDawsonSR16010424, PDawsonSR16010425, PDawsonSR16010426, PDawsonSR16010427, PDawsonSR16010428
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
50 Squadron
dispersal
Hampden
military service conditions
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/141/1655/PBanksP15010133.1.jpg
c8eb11096652a30285646f9cee9c4fa8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Banks, Peter. Album one
Description
An account of the resource
134 items. The album contains pictures taken at RAF Methwold and Feltwell, Battles in France as part of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force in 1940, 2 Group target photographs, and Venturas and Photographic Reconnaissance Unit Spitfires. There are also a number of aerial photographs of cities and targets in the Ruhr and the Low countries taken at low level during a sightseeing Cooks tour after VE Day. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Scenes from France
Description
An account of the resource
Top left a horse drawn cart with a woman and children aboard stands by a roadside. A man stands to the right of the rear wheel. In the background trees.
Top right an airman kneeling stroking a baby goat with his right hand and smoking a cigarette. In the background a chicken hutch and a wall.
Middle left a group of military vehicles in an open area. A road runs from bottom right to mid left. On the left a small wooden structure and in the background trees.
Middle right military vehicles parked in a field. Lorry with trailer, a single trailer and a car are at the front. In the background trees.
Bottom left a street in a town with many vehicles. On the left cars, in the centre a van going right and to its right another van and a lorry going left. On the left is an airman walking towards and to the right a French servicemen with helmet. In the background buildings and in the centre a sign "Restaurant-Hôtel CYGNE", "Vêtements Julien" and a Citroën garage.
Bottom right a group of airmen standing and sitting in front of a hangar. Two are leaning against a pile vehicle tires. Several rifles are visible leaning against baggage and equipment. In the background another hangar.
Additional information kindly provided by Frank Schilder.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15010133
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending identification. Places
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Frank Schilder
animal
ground personnel
hangar
service vehicle
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/141/1654/PBanksP15010132.1.jpg
35c37c75a2683b5362ede6338872bad3
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Banks, Peter. Album one
Description
An account of the resource
134 items. The album contains pictures taken at RAF Methwold and Feltwell, Battles in France as part of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force in 1940, 2 Group target photographs, and Venturas and Photographic Reconnaissance Unit Spitfires. There are also a number of aerial photographs of cities and targets in the Ruhr and the Low countries taken at low level during a sightseeing Cooks tour after VE Day. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Scenes from France
Description
An account of the resource
Top left a convoy of lorries parked on the right side of a tree lined road. In the distance a group of people are gathered round the rear a lorry.
Top right a serviceman standing in the rear of a lorry serving food to a group of six men, some in uniform shirt sleeves, standing on the ground. To the right behind dense foliage.
Middle left a truck with bicycles on the cab roof and civilians in the back parked in a village street. Four servicemen are standing in front of the truck along with other civilians two with bicycles behind to the left. Behind this group two further lorries are parked with civilians on the back of each. In the background left trees and centre a house. On the extreme left a car.
A group of five servicemen, one with steel helmet, stand around a fire pit about to cook an unidentified fowl. Two other servicemen left and right in the background.
Bottom right a group of servicemen in shirt sleeves with steel helmets sit in the bottom of a deep ditch. In the background dense foliage.
Bottom right a baby goat stands on grass facing left. A pair of hands are holding the goat's body.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15010132
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
animal
ground personnel
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/141/1653/PBanksP15010131.2.jpg
d26472c5fe5d2331ee702b235329383e
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Banks, Peter. Album one
Description
An account of the resource
134 items. The album contains pictures taken at RAF Methwold and Feltwell, Battles in France as part of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force in 1940, 2 Group target photographs, and Venturas and Photographic Reconnaissance Unit Spitfires. There are also a number of aerial photographs of cities and targets in the Ruhr and the Low countries taken at low level during a sightseeing Cooks tour after VE Day. <br /><br />Return to the <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/140">main collection</a>.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One photograph album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP1501
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Personnel travelling in France
Description
An account of the resource
Top left in the background a line of trucks parked on the roadside under trees. In the foreground a group of airmen some sitting eating and some standing under trees.
Top right group of four airmen on a river bank or lakeside framed by trees.
Middle left an airman wearing a peaked cap sits reading at a table. Behind is the scale model of a trasnporter bridge. In the background windows with curtains.
Middle right two airmen sit eating by the rear wheels of a parked truck.
Bottom left trucks in a field. Left side is a fuel bowser and two other trucks. On the right two trucks. A man can be seen between the two groups of trucks and another at the rear of the right hand truck. In the background trees.
Bottom right inside a large tent with a row of tables. Three poles support the roof. There is a man standing on the left and another on the right.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six b/w photographs mounted on an album page
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PBanksP15010131
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending identification. Things
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
ground personnel
military service conditions
petrol bowser
service vehicle
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/681/EBoldyDABoldyLM400630.2.pdf
2fd906e66298359414ec478c6f9de1eb
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
923995, A.C.2. BOLDY.D.A.
D Flight, No 3 Squadron,
No 5 I.T.W.
R.A.F. Torquay
30th June 1940.
Mum darling,
No mail for a couple of days. I dare-say the mails have been delayed.
On Friday the R.A.F. really got going and woke Torquay up. We went to a place where they gave us some really potent Cider. We saw one of our corporals and yelled for him in chorus. Eventually two Bobbies turned up but by that time we had really got going and nothing worried us. We had a Terrific evening, all the people in Torquay were literally amazed.
Behind our Hotel there is a big Tennis club. A couple of us have joined. We paid 10/6 for the duration of our stay here. The normal fee is [deleted] 2b [/deleted] 21/- a [deleted] we [/deleted] month. We are now fully pledjed [sic] members. I had
[page break]
some very good Tennis yesterday. The courts are lawn. Two of us played five sets of singles. We then joined up with two girls from the Prudential & had a mixed doubles. After that we all had a half pint of cider and a coffee. These girls are very Classy as the office fellow said. One of them took a very poor view of our dirty buttons, (of course we polish them before we go out. [sic] Please send me my Tennis racket, two pairs of white shorts and two white shirts. Also those old vests of mine to Take in the sweat on parade. We are going bathing with these girls at two oclock. [sic]
I can probably get a pass next week end. I can't arrive before midnight Saturday & must leave about 4 on Sunday. The fair [sic] is roughly 27/9. If you think it is worth the expense let me know in your next letter and
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [underlined] [/inserted]
I shall come home. I might try to catch the 4.30 train and be in by Ten, but I don't think they will allow that. Anyway I could try. Write & let me know what you think. [deleted] If I [/deleted] I have tried to phone you several times but I just can't get through, There is always a delay of an hour and a half or so. Yesterday in addition to the Tennis we had a three mile run at P.T. I could have run a whole heap more so I must be getting tough.
The weather yesterday was Terrific. It is the same to-day, blazing hot. Most of us find the Air [sic] here very relaxing and want to go to sleep at the wrong Time. We have just returned from Church parade. During the service a young girl of 15 sang the Ave Maria. Solo. When she stood up there was a lot of chatting & she
[page break]
nervous. [sic] When she really got going there was dead silence as she sang [deleted] beat [/deleted] beautifully I don't think she has had much training either.
Two of us have just returned from a place called Sandy Cove. We played a set of singles at 11 but packed in as it was too hot. We then went out with the girls I mentioned earlier on. We went to Sandy Cove a beautiful bathing spot & had a swim. We got a rowing boat for two hours & rowed out a mile or two which was very enjoyable. After that we returned to Torquay & the girls went to their place. They wanted to play Tennis at the club this evening but we are too dead beat to do it. It was a very pleasant day. It has been the hottest day we have had here for some weeks apparently.
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 3. [underlined] [/inserted]
[page break]
At the moment I am completing this letter in my room. All I have on are my short underpants and a pair of socks. There are no cinemas or anything like that here on Sundays. Some places certainly haven't any common sense.
To-day for the first Time after Ten or twelve days I had a glorious bath. I put on clean underwear & my civilian shirt and am feeling really clean for the first Time in ages.
I don't know how far it is true but I hear we may be leaving here soon as they apparently intend cutting out all this initial stuff and getting down to the navigation & flying training. I don't think there could be much truth in it as this last move was a Terrific affair, though I must admit we could easily do without
[page break]
the stuff we are doing at the moment, with the enception [sic] of the morse code.
I am going out now for half an hour or so and will try & phone through. I don't expect I shall get through.
From the papers to-day it looks as if Hitler's invasion of this Island Fortress is in the eve of beginning. I hope [deleted] it [/deleted] this venture fails utterly and Teaches him a lesson he won't forget in a hurry.
No more To-day. God bless you both.
[underlined] Love Dave. [/underlined]
[underlined] P.S. [/underlined] This would be a grand life if we had less work to do. It is a grand life anyway. I feel as fit as a fiddle.
Love [underlined] Dave. [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Bombing, Aerial
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother giving details of his daily routine in the RAF and his social life including swimming, playing tennis and meeting girls.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-30
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Six page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400630
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
entertainment
love and romance
RAF Torquay
sport
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/680/EBoldyDABoldyLM400628.2.pdf
436851d8e5a3fce28d9fc1e5466dbcfd
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] 923995 A.C.2. BOLDY.D.A
[underlined] D Flight etc [/underlined] [/inserted]
28th June 1940.
Mum darling,
Just a line before I go out for the evening. I didn't post the other letters yesterday as I was flat broke & the others were so broke I could not even raise 2 1/2d.
To-day I have £1. We got 26/- pay. I bought some Players and had a much needed haircut & a shampoo. There was no mail for me to-day, so I shall probably get your last letter tomorrow.
Fire picket duty yesterday was quite amusing. We had a meal across the road on Tick in a sort of boarding house. Jolly decent of the old girl who gave it to us. I had only 2 1/2 hrs sleep last night & after parade & P.T. was dead beat. I have some what recovered. After a short rest & a shave Ajan and I are going out.
It has been a piping hot day
[page break]
This afternoon we had a gas lecture out in the garden. It was lovely out there. We were supposed to go in for morse code but the C.O. let us stay out as he said we were always been [sic] marched here & there. He is a damn decent chap. I think he was in the Army before he joined the R.A.F.
None of us has had a bath for ages & there is no hot water [deleted] her [/deleted] in the hot Taps at the moment so I don't know what we are going to do. I suppose the water will become hot in due course.
No more to-day.
God bless you both
[underlined] Love Dave. [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 3. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[underlined] A Longish Post Script [/underlined]
I am sorry I only put on 2d worth of stamps on my letter yesterday but that is all I had at hand. At the moment I am in the guard room. D Flight is duty Flight this week. I am on fire picket. We have three hour patrols. Ajan & I are on from 3 - 6 a.m. Pretty awful, but little things like that don't worry us these days. Two of us brought some food for those on duty. We shall have it shortly.
I have just seen the Italian terms for the first Time. What a Terrible state of affairs. I can't understand the French government giving in like that. They might at least have handed over their Navy & Air force to us. Also all the soldiers they could evacuate to this country. What amuses me is the way some of these political writers yap about how
[page break]
we can still win, instead of getting down to the job & doing something for a change.
I read in D.R.O. (Daily Routine Orders) to-day that week-end leave or rather 24 hr. leave was being renewed. That is from 6 p.m. on Saturday Till midnight Sunday. Only 25% of the Squadron are allowed out at a Time. It wouldn't leave me much Time at home, but I will see what happens.
No more now.
[underlined] Love Dave. [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother. He writes about his finances, the lack of hot water and that he is hoping for leave. He comments on the French surrendering.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-28
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400628
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
RAF Torquay
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/679/EBoldyDABoldyLM400627.2.pdf
6d7b4236969468c351eba982bf203eb8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
923995, BOLDY. A.C.2.
D Flight No 3 Squadron,
No 5 I.T.W.
R.A.F. Torquay.
27th June 1940.
My darling Mum & Steve,
Many thanks for both your letters.
Torquay is certainly beautiful but as I told you in my last letter the bathing is rotten. You never quite know when [one indecipherable word] where you will land up in 2 feet of water.
The French certainly seem to have caught it in the neck. Ian is the limit, he simply cannot take it. If he is behaving like that now, God Knows what he will do if he really bumps up against something. We all grouse but that is because we have nothing better to do. But I will say Margaret is enough to get on anyone's nerves. The band leader must have been an interesting chap.
I should think you would be fairly safe in the shelter, but of course the trouble is getting to the damn thing in time. Something ought to be done about the woman in the
[page break]
Mews. People who leave the shelters before time deserve all they get. We have not been disturbed at all so far in Torquay. I'm glad to hear there is another mouse less in the flat.
It was bad luck about Pat's boy friend. Perhaps he may still be alive. It would be a good idea if you could get hold of a couple of tin hats for raids as they are a great protection.
I am very pleased to hear about [deleted] tin [/deleted] my smashing blonde [inserted] (aged 4.) [/inserted] As a matter of fact to be quite honest she is the only lady I am at all interested in at the moment. I think she deserves a photograph of me. I hope Steve is not being lazy.
The message to Dad is perfect. It must be damnable for him, especially as letters take so long these days.
I am glad to hear Bill is getting on well after his operation. [one indecipherable word] remark about
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
about Uncle Martin talking nonsense is rather amusing. I hope you do well in your surgery.
The night suits will do fine. I shall write for anything else I need. Thanks for the £1 you are going to send. In future I shall only take £1 at a time it will then last longer. I hear we will only be paid £1 for the next fortnight - Out of it I have to pay 2/- for a photograph 1/- sports fund, & 1/- for a wireless (radio) raffle.
Last evening Scottie and I went out. We had something to eat - very meagre as that is all we could afford. After that we did some morse code. It was very useful as I now know the alphabet. I shall have to work on speed now. We must do six words a minute.
We went down to the promenade to-day for [deleted] B [/deleted] Drill, P.T. and [deleted] parade [/deleted] [inserted] indecipherable word [/inserted].
We did Drill & P.T. but had no.
[page break]
swim for some reason or other. It was very amusing. We all changed on the green adjoining the road & many people were looking on. There was rather an attractive blonde, showing a good bit of leg, who seemed very interested. We were not at all bashful. Our corporals behaved disgustingly when they were changing. The Blonde however was unperturbed.
I am on Firepicket tonight, so shall not be able to get out this evening. Perhaps it is just as well as I have no money. I owe 6/- and am owed 6/- so will have all my pay on Friday. Some blokes' [deleted] ha [/deleted] accounts don't balance quite so favourably.
The weather has been funny, sun & rain alternately.
Will enclose letter for Dad.
No more to-day. God bless you both
Love [underlined] Dave. [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother. Speaks about his daily life in Torquay including drill, physical training and fire picket duties. He comments on his social life with the girls.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-27
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400627
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother
bombing
RAF Torquay
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/678/EBoldyDABoldyLM400626.2.pdf
49af5b3c80bacc30292becad76960354
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
923995, A.C.2. BOLDY. D.A.
[deleted] D. FLIGHT. NO 3 Squadron,
No 5. I.T.W.
Room 46, Elford Leigh Hotel,
Torquay,
Devonshire, [/deleted]
[inserted] from
Boldy.
59, Bathurst Mews
Lancaster Gate
London, W.2. [/inserted]
26th June 1940.
Mum darling,
We have had a Terrific day to-day. Till 1.30 we were unloading stores lockers etc & at the end of it we were half dead. In the afternoon we had P.T. and then a swim & some poor devils have just got bussed in for more unloading. I am free now thank heavens. Still we had some fun in the Lorry [sic] on the way to the Railway station.
Ajan, Griffith & I went for a swim last evening. We then had a meal.
On our way home we met Cecil who was with Trixie - a girl friend from London - who is living here at the moment. We had a chat.
It is awfully amusing to see the people watching us march to
[page break]
meals & doing parade. It was quite amusing after our swim to-day.
I saw in the papers that London had a very long warning. I suppose you & Steve must have been up all night. God Knows [sic] how this war is going to end. I don't see how we can Take the initiative now. Perhaps an opportunity will present itself later.
I am going to buy a pair of bathing shorts soon from the R.A.F. You get a lovely pair for 8/6. I may get it after pay day.
There are masses of girls here. So far I should think they are very disappointed with the R.A.F. as being short of cash we have all been very quiet after Friday when we really get going they may be really disappointed.
We did a lot of cheering and hand waving in the train on our way
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
here. The people at Hastings were genuinely sorry that the R.A.F. were leaving. Incidentally it Takes 5 1/2 hrs from here to Paddington. That isn't so bad really. I understand however, that we will not get leave Till the end of this course. That is another six weeks. But one never knows. We may get week -end leave some Time.
Only a couple of weeks left for me to get my L.A.C. If they don't start paying then I shall get all my back money - from the Time I became an L.A.C. in a lump sum.
The countryside here is quite pretty. It is hilly. Our room faces the bay. It is a beautiful [deleted] to [/deleted] view. The bathing in this bay is not so good however. You have to walk out a good distance first. I prefer a plunge. I hear that there are some lovely bathing spots nearby.
[page break]
I tried to phone through last evening to have a chat but could not even get the operator. I may try again to-night. Leollie (another friend of ours) and I are going out for a stroll shortly. We are going to study some Morse Code, I hope! Five of our lot Ajan, Chivers, Chatham, Kelly & myself are in the same room and four of our crowd in another, so that is quite good.
I haven't seen a daily newspaper since I came here. I tried to phone last night as I know you would not have had a letter for a few days. You ought to have got the one or two in one I posted last night.
No more to-day. God bless you both.
[underlined] Love Dave. [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother. Speaks about leaving Hastings, the leading aircraftsman course. He is swimming and is delighted with the number of girls around, and discusses a bombing attack on London.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-26
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400626
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Hastings
England--Sussex
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
love and romance
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/677/EBoldyDABoldyLM400623.1.pdf
c64158b8cae6ba46eebbb51b8877f760
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
R.A.F.
St. Leonard's On Sea,
23rd June, 1940.
[inserted] from.
Boldy,
59, Bathurst Mews,
Lancaster Gate
London, W.2. [/inserted]
My darling Mum & Steve,
Just a line a [sic] I have a moment to spare. I have just come off duty from being flight orderly. One hour every three hours Till 4 oclock [sic] then I am free. We have sent off the last of our stuff including our beds. Only our Kit bags remain. We shall have to sleep on the floorboards tonight and will probably leave some Time tomorrow.
My date didn't come off last evening, Sylvia (her name is Sylvia) met me but would not go out as they were having a family party. I think her father is not too keen on trusting her with the speedy R.A.F. I may Take her out this evening.
I went to the dance last evening with Cecil. He got hold of a good dancer, but that was all. He
[page break]
had had a few and asked me what I thought of her, so I laughed like blazes & he joined in. It was a very good dance. I had a number of dances with a Blonde school Teacher, whose home is in Bournemouth - the latter was written or I should say spoken all over her. Another dance I had Which was very amusing was with a girl (fairly refined) who had had a couple. She Told me she did not like dancing with English people as they concentrated on the dancing, but liked dancing with the French because they concentrated on their partners. I promptly asked her to come & have a drink but her escort to the dance was one of the Sergeants & she couldn't make it.
The dance was quite amusing on the whole. Furthermore I lost Cecil.
The weather is not too good
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2 [/underlined] [/inserted]
to-day but I shall go in for a dip a little later. When we went in yesterday it was incredibly rough. The waves were so enormous that we could only do the breast stroke. But there was no danger or anything like that. It was great fun. After that we amused ourselves by throwing pebbles at some girls on the beach. [deleted] We [/deleted] I managed to get to know them. One of them had a smashing figure.
Everybody is very sorry that the RAF are leaving Hastings. The army will probably Take over. All the girls said they prefer the boys in blue. Someone said Torquay is very quiet but added the R.A.F. will change that I am sure.
We had another undisturbed night last night. I can't imagine what the French are thinking about. How can they expect us to have the means
[page break]
to win if they surrender completely Fleet, Air Force etc. Anyway Hitler will have a damn - tough job beating us up. Red tape is killing this country somebody ought to clean up that sort of thing.
If I had had my name down for the interview a fortnight earlier I should probably have been a pilot I have just seen some of those Taken in on the first few days of the war. It amazes me how some of them were Taken in at all. One complacently told some girls yesterday that pilots were captain [sic] of the ship so I replied equally complacently quite but that is going to be changed in the near future. He was quite upset at the prospect.
No more To-day. God bless you both
[underlined] Love Dave [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400623
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother. States that he is on flight duty shifts and that his kit is all pack to leave Hastings; discusses the different women he met at the dance and the beach, whilst discussing the Royal Air Force leaving Hastings.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-23
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Hastings
England--Sussex
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Joy Reynard
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
entertainment
love and romance
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/675/EBoldyDABoldyLM400618.1.pdf
7bdb05a2ed92fc6262a08a16ba659a50
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] from
Boldy
59, Bathurst Mews,
Lancaster Gate.
London. W.2. [/inserted]
[Corner censored]
18th June, 1940.
My darling Mum & Steve,
Thanks for your letter and all your news.
The news is certainly bad. Still we will give them a run for this money allright [sic]: I hope to heaven if the French do make peace. Their fleet and Air Force came over her. If not we will be in a terrible position.
I am glad to hear Joyce enjoyed her visit. Bravo to the pair of them going to the semi-finals. It was nice of Pete to come over. A pity [deleted] a [/deleted] I couldn’t make it. Anyway as soon as the R.A.F. leave is resumed I should be able to come home for a couple of days.
We have had a very hard day to-day. A swim in the morning, parades, maths, Morse Code, Anti gas [sic] etc. We were
[page break]
[corner censored]
we went into tea. There [censored words] Till 5.30.. Ajan & I [censored words] couple of hours after we finish our letters.
I am conserving my finances fairly well this Time. Of course we got paid 30/- on Friday; I think I can hold out till pay day & that will last me at least another week so I shant [sic] be draining the family purse for a [deleted] bit [/deleted] while.
We had a group Taken of the eleven of us. – No 3 Squadron from Drem, I shall send it to you. I have not come out well. Very few of us have, as we were Tired and I shiny and I don’t think this photographer was very good. The photo is official incidentally. The photo: on my identity card is ghastly, I look almost debauched despite my recent strict living. They ought at least allow us to have a
[page break]
[underlined] 2. [/underlined]
wash and brush up.
I have finished my induly [sic] duty thank heavens. It is a damn nuissance [sic]. Anyway I saw everyone was in last night and got them up this morning allright [sic].
We had to march and climb obstacles in our respirators to-day. It was a picnic. I am really getting tough. My muscles are getting hard. I think it is the early rising, early swim and parades etc. Have had better be careful When I get home. To-day we had to clean up the barracks. It’s a damn nuisance having to do Char’s work. [deleted] I [/deleted] None of us mind parades etc. I shall let you know when I move. There are indications that we are going to.
No more to-day. God bless you both.
Love Dave.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Great Britain. Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother. Exclaims the benefit French reinforcements after a peace treaty; discusses his financial affairs and mentions his daily routine and chores; he describes the taking of his ‘ghastly’ official photograph and the noticeable physical benefit of the training.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-18
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400618
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anita Raine
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
military living conditions
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/565/EBoldyDABoldyLM400625.1.jpg
5cdd09b212cea038791e91c0094b38b4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[deleted] 923995, Boldy. A.C.2
No. 3 Squadron, D Flight, RAF,
No 5 I.T.W.
Room 46, Elfordleigh Hotel
R.A.F. Torquay.
Devonshire. [/deleted]
[inserted] [underlined] from
Boldy,
59, Bathurst Mews
Lancaster Gate
London, W.2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
25th June.
My darling Mum & Steve,
Just a line to let you know how I am getting on. We moved from Hastings on Monday morning & arrived at Torquay in the evening. We were not allowed out yesterday but are going out tonight for a swim. The R.A.F. was obviously novelty and everyone looked at us. We have to march to the dining Hall about 5 minutes march and everyone just looks It is like a monkey parade. Torquay looks a jolly fine place. The bay is lovely. We left the girls in Hastings well trained. Here there are 1000 girls from the Prudential evacuated from London. We start serious training shortly! More later. God bless
You both love [underlined] Dave [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother. He let them know that he has moved from Hastings to Torquay and includes some of his observations on his new posting, with references to girls evacuated from London.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-25
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyLM400625
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Torquay
England--Devon
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page letter
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his mother and brother
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Andy Hamilton
evacuation
love and romance
RAF Torquay
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/504/EBoldyDABoldyAD400627.2.pdf
bcb06d69c1d9954e3bdab1e616e7dc07
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted in different hand][underlined] London, W.2. [/underlined]. 59, Bathurst Mews,
Boldy - Lancaster Gate
London, W.2. [/ inserted in different hand]
27th June, 1940.
My darling Dad,
I’m awfully sorry I haven’t written for some Time but we have had another change & are working very hard. We spent twelve days at Hasting. It was very pleasant. We did not like the first two days but then got used to it. The programme there was an early morning dip in the sea. This was followed by Parade. We then had maths & signals – the latter is Morse Code – After this P.T. – On Wednesdays we have organised games such as Tennis water-polo, etc . Also a couple of Antigas lectures are thrown in. we have not yet started Navigation but I don’t think it will be long now. After din [sic] we were free to go out. I have acquired quite a habit now of
[page break]
going in for a swim almost everyday.
We are now at Torquay. It is a very picturesque place. I forgot to mention socially Hastings was quite amusing. I did not do much apart from swimming. The programme here is more or less the same as at Hastings. The only difference here is that the R.A.F. have never been here before. The result is that everyone stares at us when we drill or march to the dining Hall. It is very amusing. There are masses of girls here so as soon as the R.A.F. is payed [sic] we shall have to beat the town up. the bathing here is not very good as it is very shallow for a long way. I hear however that there are some very nice places close by.
The weather here is supposed to be very hot & tropical. We have
[page break]
not noticed it so far as we are not having really good weather at the moment.
The Political news is terrible. I cannot understand the attitude Taken up by the French government. They could easily have fought on from their colonies and Taken the fleet, Air force and all available men & materials. All this will be hopelessly out of date by the Time you receive this letter.
Incidentally Cecil one of my best pals at College was at Hastings under training as a pilot. He is now at Torquay. I met him the other day. As I know where he is I shall be seeing a lot of him.
I am here with most of my friends. Half of us our [sic] in the same room. We are billeted in
[page break]
Hotels, run completely by us of course. Our room faces some Tennis Courts and the bay. The view is lovely.
We work very hard here, and am just about all in at the end of the day. I am looking very fit and well Tanned [sic].
At Hastings we had a couple of Air Raid Warnings at Hastings. The night we slept on the Concrete floor of an Air Raid Shelter. Nothing happened & we didn’t here[sic] anything. Anyway we were too sleepy to worry.
Don’t worry about us & keep your chin up.
No more to-day. God bless & keep you for us.
Love Dave. [hand drawn picture of cap]
[inserted in different hand] [underlined] P.S. [/underlined] [underlined] 1 [/underlined]
[underlined] 8th July [/underlined].
I am afraid this will get over weight for the Air Mail if I add a sheet. Dave came in on Saturday the 6 th at 10.p.m. looking absolutely fine. His cap had a white bit in front something like in my attempt at drawing, this is to show they are Air Crew & are they proud of it! We gave him a very happy 18 hours & were glad to have him that long. Steve & his friend John Porace were here for the weekend too. We saw him off at Paddington, 5 minutes from here & met some of his lot. Nice boys. All the little mothers sporting their R.A.F. brooches (winged), & smiled bravely, grateful for the brief glimpse of their boys. Dave took back plenty of luck, 50 cigarettes & my tooth paste! Love Baby. [inserted in different hand]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father about his daily activities at Hastings, and then at Torquay. Comments on the French government, mentions a meeting with Cecil and cadet training
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-27
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Artwork
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyAD400627
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Hastings
England--Torquay
England--Devon
England--Sussex
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
Andy Hamilton
aircrew
RAF Torquay
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/503/EBoldyDABoldyAD400617-0001.2.jpg
a26dc23e53e553bd7615fe63958c589a
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted in different hand] Boldy.
59, Bathurst Mews,
Lancaster Gate,
London, W.2. [/ inserted in different hand]
R.A.F. [deleted] Hastings [/deleted]
17th June. 1940.
My darling Dad,
Thanks for your letter and all your news. Many happy returns [deleted] of [/deleted] for your birthday. God bless & keep you for us.
Mum Tells[sic] me that there will be no more Air Mails; it is a pity but under present circumstances there is no help for it.
We lest Scotland on Tuesday and arrived in Hastings next day. As we went via London & had a couple of hours spare I popped home for breakfast. Both Mum & Steve were very surprised. We are in Billets at the moment bang on the sea [deleted] front [/deleted] front. It is rather pleasant. We have a terrific amount of work to do. In the mornings instead of P.T. I go for an early morning dip, which is very enjoyable & certainly wakes me up. we then have breakfast. After this a couple of parades, P.T. and the lectures after which we are free.
[page break]
The days end at 5 or 6. We can then go out but must be by our beds by 10 and lights go out at 10.15
The other day there was a Maths grading list, - all people of the same standard to be put in groups so as to make Teaching[sic] easier. I got 100% as the paper was quite simple. We are also to study navigation in a short Time[sic] & the morse code to-day. It should be rather interesting.
I am off to lunch and will complete this letter after it.
Have done some Maths and the morse code. The latter requires quite a bit of concentration. I am now on orderly duty for 24 hrs. – duties to put lights out etc.
The military situation is Terrible[sic]. God help the French. I hope we fight on, whatever the odds are. If the other Democracies or what is left of them don’t come in they will deserve all they will get later – No more To-day. God bless you.
Love [underlined] Dave. [/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father about his daily activities after leaving Scotland for Hastings, and visiting his mother and Steve whilst passing through London. He comments the current military situation.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-17
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyAD400617
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Scotland
England--Hastings
England--Sussex
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
military living conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/502/EBoldyDABoldyAD400609.1.pdf
8f7b1f352a55e7e4a67d87c9825db044
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] 1 [/underlined]
R.A.F. Station Drem
9th June, 1940.
My darling Dad,
Thanks for your post cards, they are very attractive. I hope you enjoyed your holidayand are feeling completely fit again.
I am still at this Station in Scotland as apparently there is no room at the observers training school at the moment.
During our first week here we were given no work of any sort to do. Five days ago we were put on fatigues, cleaning up floors etc. Now however we have quite a nice job – Spotting. Everyone Takes two hour periods at looking out for enemy air-craft. There is also a Lewis Gun
[page break]
attached to the post which the man on duty at the observation post will man. We are going to be taught how to use a lewis gun from tomorrow. We shall also have lectures in the identification of various air-craft. It is a much better job than sweeping floors with a broom. All of us are anxious to get on with our real training. This hanging around is a damn nuisance. I am afraid I cannot see any Reason for it, as everybody is yapping about the terrific war effort.
I have been into
[page break]
[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
Edinburgh a couple of times, & rather like it. It is [underlined] not [/underlined] a patch on London though.
Some of us have also been swimming in the sea nearby. The beach is lovely and we [deleted] ha [/deleted] enjoyed it immensely apart from the fact that it keeps you very fit. Yesterday the observers cleared several fields of hay. It was blazing hot so we stripped to the waist. It was grand fun. We also had great fun in the [indecipherable] on the way there and back to the camp. We made a mass [indecipherable] in all the people we passed. It [indecipherable]
[page break]
anything the B.B.C. dished up.
Outside the camp there is a café called the Parachute. It is a very nice place & we have good fun with the Scotch girls who run it.
On Friday there is an R.A.F. dance to which all of us are going. It should be quite good fun. Incidentally all my friends from the beginning are at this station with me.
Some of us are going swimming to-day. I am rather looking forward to it. No more to-day. God bless & keep you for us.
Love Dave.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father about being stationed in Scotland, waiting to start the air observers school. He has visited Edinburgh and been swimming locally.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-09
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyAD400609
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Scotland
Scotland--Edinburgh
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
aircrew
military living conditions
observer
RAF Drem
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/501/EBoldyDABoldyAD400602-0001.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/53/501/EBoldyDABoldyAD400602-0002.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Boldy, David
Dave Boldy
D A Boldy
Description
An account of the resource
334 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant David Adrian Boldy (1918 – 1942, 923995 Royal Air Force) and consists of his school reports, letters from school and photographs of family and locations in India, letters from training and service, and photographs from his social life and time training. It also includes newspaper cuttings and letters about him being missing in action. David Boldy was born and attended school in India and studied law at Kings College London. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as an air gunner in South Africa. He flew operations in Manchesters and Lancasters with 207 Squadron from RAF Bottesford. His aircraft failed to return from an operation to Gdańsk 11 July 1942. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by David Boldy and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.<br /><br />Additional information on David Boldy is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102182/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Boldy, DA
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Scotland.
2nd. June.
1940
My darling Dad,
We are more or less used to the routine of the station we are now at. It is an operational station & consequently we have quite an easy time. So far we have had no duties to perform. There are some lovely fighter planes here Spitfires & Hurricanes; Also a couple of trainers. We will probably go up for a flip before we leave and are posted.
We were [deleted] posted [/deleted] payed [sic] the other day & decided to Celebrate in Edinburgh. We went to the Scottish Art Exhibition which was very interesting. There were a couple of Royal Academy paintings hanging up. after that we had some Tea and then went to a variety show which was excellent. We were in the stalls for 1/-. A lady behind us bought the three of us a two penny slab of chocolate each. Awfully decent of her. She had a couple
[page break]
of kids with [deleted] us [/deleted] here [sic]. After the show we went dancing to the local night club for 1/6, and had to leave just when things were livening up.
the B.E.F. for all the battering they got put up a damn good show. I still think we will beat Hell out of Hitler & Co before long, even if Mussolini comes in Though I must say Hitler has done pretty well so far.
It is Sunday to-day & most of us are just lazing around the [indecipherable]. I shall not go out for as couple of days. I am conserving my financial power 2/- a day for the strategic moments. Of course I have had a very liberal allowance from Mum so far. I shan’t need any money or not much when I start drawing 6/6 a day.
No more to-day. God bless & keep you for us.
[underlined] Love Dave [/underlined].
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Description
An account of the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father about being stationed in Scotland and visiting Edinburgh.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Boldy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1940-06-02
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Correspondence
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EBoldyDABoldyAD400602
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Scotland
Scotland--Edinburgh
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-06
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
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.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from David Boldy to his father
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
entertainment