Another letter from Calshot on RAF header, without a date. FX 83787
C 4 Hut RN Unit Eaglehurst Camp RAF Station Calshot Hants Dear Mother, Thanks a lot for you parcel which arrived this morning. Wonder of wonders an ‘Orange’. I slowly ate it in front of every chap in the hut. Boy they looked as if they where going to knock me down. The mag’s too, where very welcome, as I have nothing to read. As for leave, if I do get any I’ll not have much chance to warn you, as its a thing here, which they pop on us sudden like. It’s quite a habit of their’s, to give only two hours notice. You see we don’t know when we will be drafted and that mucks things up a lot. I’m glad to hear that you back at your job and that you are better. I’ve a job here which is the goods. Watch keepers job, fours hours on eight off. It’s all right. I popped over to Lee on Solent last Sunday to see the blond I used to go around with, you rember. Well I was eight hours late getting back as I missed the train, thus ‘Jimmy the one’ (that’s the first leut) gave me three days pay stopped, three days leave stopped and three No 11 (No 11 is 2 hours work each night, half an hours work dinner time and getting up half an hour before the others). This is called ‘three and three’. We get ‘three and three’ for every 3 hours we are adrift. How is Mrs Jones getting on? Is she out of hospital yet. Tell her I hope she is feeling alright. Yesterday I spent the afternoon in the cook-house, peeling apples. It was almost like knitting. ‘Peel one, eat one’. You can understand how I felt after two hours of this, my pinny was like a drum. Has Phil still got that cat I brought young Anne. I bet she’s lost it. I’ll aint half be mad if she has, after carting it all that way. Well thanks again once more for that parcel, all the boys at the moment are reading the comic and there’s a waiting list yet to read it. It will have been well in use by the time its finished with. Well cheerio for now All my love David The following letter is undated and has no address apart from an RAF 'header' , it just reads 'Is a Bell?' Best guess is that its from around the time of the last letter. It is to his sister Isabelle (known as 'Ding Dong') asking her a favour. Dear ‘Ding Dong’
You know by now I’m going to ask you to do something for me as I always do when I write you at all. This envelope which is blank, as no doubt you can see, I’d like you to send, or give to Betty Anne by some way or other. I know you will do this (I hope). There’s not much mush in it but if you want to look inside, not only will you have to get a new envelope, but you will have to pay postage for it otherwise you can send it without a stamp. I must keep some sort of spark between us (Oh love!) so you can be the missing link. You know that old saying ‘a chain is a strong as its weakest link’ so don’t let me down. How is the Navy getting on at your end. If its anything like the British standard its not doing so bad. Well cheerio for now as this about my limit for tonight, hoping to hear from you some time All the best David An undated letter from Calshot. Probably Sept/Oct 1942. FX 83787 C4 Hut RN Unit Eaglehurst Camp Calshot Hants Dear Mum, Well, I’m sorry I’m late with your letter, as I wrote one out and forgot to post it so now as it’s out of date I’m writing one more. Things seem to be still going slowly down here. A bit of Scotland’s rain has found its way down here by the looks of it. It’s making me miserable because if there’s one thing I hate and that’s rain. We had a route march yesterday for about ten miles. I had a letter from Betty the other day. She started nagging about those books of hers. By the way, I’ve just found out one of my thumbs (the left one) is shorter than the right one. Did you give ‘ding gong’ the card I gave you Saturday night. Tell her I think she’s ‘the goods’ if she will get a ‘combined operations’ badge for me from the shop. (A red one) and find out how much the gold ones cost. If she does go, she had better take this letter and show it, if the guy wants to know who its for. I’ve got one badge already which has been issued to me, but as you can see, it’s not a very good one. Please send it back in your next letter. I must fall in for church now but I’ll as soon as I can. All my love to you and ding dong and Jim David |
David SaundersBorn July 31st 1923 Topics
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