7 December 1941

7.12.41

Dear Angela
I received the very welcome birthday-card just over a week ago - it has taken “ages” to come, but thank you very much. I am hoping that this reaches you before you add another year to your score. You may pick some tips on swimming from the card. I suppose it will be after Xmas by the time you receive this, I am going to have quite a busy time during that time. I have a Chemistry exam in a fortnights’ time, and a week intensive training with the Training Corps during the vacation. We are going out all day, on rough country executing an attack scheme drawn up by one of our officers. I will also have to do some swotting during the vacation as we have to cover about two years work in one. Up til now I have not even been invited to any parties and I don’t think there will be many this year because of the rationing etc. Mam says we will have to do without Xmas dinner and the usual excess of good food - she says it will do us no harm - well I don’t suppose it will.
You had “hard luck” in the tennis tournament to be matched against the probable champion in the semi-final - however I can’t say that you did extra well in the doubles - but who cares it’s all good fun. I hope your swimming and life-saving class is going strong and that you pass the tests. If the Life Saving tests are the same as I got, your Red Cross training will be helpful in the theory. I have very little time for sport now - we have a Swimming Club at college but I haven’t time to go, and I have been asked to run in cross-country races, but I have to go to Training Corps instead, mam is glad of this as she says it is too far to run.
I must say that you are doing a good deal of work at school, I was never any good at English which seems to be one of your main subjects, and Civics - well I have never had a lesson on it in my life. I am just managing to keep up with my work; and I seem to suffer from the same complaint as you - handing in essays each week, - I usually have two each week and they are on such dry subjects as – “special types of engines” – “design of machines etc” - but I suppose it is my job and I had better do it.
Dad has just gone to bed and I must follow suit soon. He has to go on fire-watching at work at 4.00 o’clock this (tomorrow) morning - I suppose you will have heard all about our fire-watching system.
We have had no air-raids since the last time I wrote - but the moon is full now. I used to look upon the moon as a romantic thing which appeared at certain times and made the world very romantic (if you were of a romantic turn of mind) - now it is looked upon with almost hate as it usually (not always) brings at least one raid - I must “cross my fingers” or “touch wood” as he hasn’t been this moon - yet.
Well so much for the war and situation over here - as for the situation over there and in Japan, it is beyond my depth - or perhaps I just don’t understand it.
I must close now wishing you a very happy birthday.
Yours sincerely
Harold

P.S. If you can’t read this I will forward the code on application! I hope the envelope manages to hold together, it is the strongest I can get, and the white ones are very thin - rationing again.

16 November 1941 - College Rag Day

16.11.41

Dear Angela
I am sending this in the hope that you will receive it before Xmas. We are having typical November weather - it has rained every day for over a fortnight and it is showing no signs of ceasing. It has just started again I can hear it on the windows - outside it is pitch black - no stars, no moon and no lights, I think you appreciate home and a fire more than ever on “black-out nights”.
I haven’t a great deal of news as nothing very unusual has happened, except - we have had some eating apples and oranges again - this is a great event, and the fruit is kept and put on show, until you can bear it no longer, and you are unable to resist and put your teeth into them. Mam has managed to save some oranges and our “jam” ration is being spread out with home-made marmalade. At present we are discussing the possibility of fruit loaf at Xmas but no resolution has been obtained yet. In spite of all this we are nowhere near starving and just like to have a laugh out of the rationing.
The college held its rag-day a week or two ago and what a time I had. We were all dressed up and collecting for charity. I had an old battered hat, a big false nose, gloves with a few fingers missing, trousers half way up my legs and a loud Scotch tie on with no collar on my shirt. My body, attired in the above clothes, was linking with a fat “lady” (a boy dressed up) and pushing a pram, containing a “baby”, on two wheels. The wheels came off in the main street, the baby rolled out, the traffic was held up and to crown it all a “bull” (two boys) came and sat in the pram - we took charge of the town, going through the stores and offices from top to bottom. I can tell you that I could hardly walk home after it all. Does your school have a rag-day like this?
I am not sure how I stand with the new “call-up” at eighteen years old, I may be exempt with being in the Training Corps on condition that I do well in my exams.
I hope the strike situation across there is a little better, when you get this, than it is now. If the strikers had heard bombs falling, seen them explode, seen the damage, and anxious people reading the casualty lists I don’t think they would behave the way they are doing.
We have had a raid or two lately and bombs were dropped on some houses not so far from here. We heard the plane diving down and then the scream of the bombs falling, mam got under the bed and I dropped flat on the ground, the explosion just about shook the house off its foundations. These bombs all hit private houses and a few persons were killed. I am afraid that I am stuck for news and I will close now wishing you and all at home a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
Harold

12 October 1941 - Starting college

12th Oct 1941

Dear Angela
Your letter arrived over a week ago but I simply have not had time to answer it. You will have been back at school about six weeks by now - I have been at college for just over one week, this is the reason why I have had so little time to answer your letter. I will start at my first day at college and give my experiences in order. I began on Oct 1st at 9.15, an address from the principal of the college was about all we got that morning. We were supposed to have the afternoon free - but we had to put in three hours squad drill under a terrible sergeant - you have seen pictures of “raw recruits” well I was one, the next “parade” was on Oct 4th when we got drill and lectures - this means that I am “in the army” for 6 hours each week, however I think it is grand. The rest of the week (except Sunday) is spent in lectures and lab. work, and piles of work to do at home; out of the 37½ hours I spend at college about 26 hours are spent with maths - they call it various names, but it still boils down to maths. You can imagine the amount of work I have to do now. As I am taking a degree I will have to become a member of Durham University - this will mean going through a ceremony adorned in a mortar-board and gown - I will look great.
I hope you got your dress and skirt made in time - you should be over here; mam is always making something out of something else, as you are only allowed so many clothes coupons a year. Most of the girls have finished their coupons, and are about half way through their brother’s or dad’s coupons.
We have had a busy night or two, when the moon was out, bombs were dropped near a friend of mine - the houses on each side of his were down to the ground and yet not one of the windows in his house was broken. When you walk around the streets you often hear snatches of conversation such as these:-
“I keep all the valuables in a case in the shelter - just to make sure if anything happens”
“The two men managed to get some sleep in the shelter, but I stayed awake because the guns were so noisy”
Or “Such and such a shop has got chocolate and cigarettes”
You asked why the July 4th ceremony was held in a school. The Elementary Schools don’t close until the second or third week in July and open about a month afterwards. The colleges close about the last week in June and open about Oct 1st.
The only topic left is the war and I don’t want to mention it, so I will close.
Yours sincerely
Harold

24 August 1941 - Holiday in Lake District

24.8.41

Dear Angela
I received your letter a few days ago and I was very sorry that you have not had any letters. I wrote about May 20th and I think the next letter was July 5th, let me know if you get these letters.
Your description of the wharf at San Francisco reminds me of some of the small fishing villages on our coast. Just above the Tyne there are some of the most quaint and beautiful villages I have seen, Cullercoats, Tynemouth, North Shields and Whitley Bay. Most of the people are fisher folk and they sit on the stone walls mending their nets, or hanging the nets out to dry; at present most of the fishing vessels are on patrol work, mine sweeping and other dangerous jobs, but I hope the quiet of these places will return with the end of the war.
I had one week holiday this year, a friend and I had hoped to ride to the Lake District on his motor bike, but we couldn’t get enough petrol - so we had to travel by train. It was a grand to go to a place which hardly knew there was a war on and to be able to get up in a morning and not have to spend the day among the noise of machines and hammers. We stayed the week at a farm out on the fells, three miles from the nearest village. We had hoped for a quiet week - but we found three girls from Newcastle were staying at the farm - a quiet week was turned into a hectic one. Hay-making, milking, mountain climbing, rowing on the lake and making ourselves general nuisances around the farm, took up most of the week. I had a grand time and did not feel like starting work again; enclosed are two photos of Derwentwater and one of me on the farm gate (the snapshot is not very clear because the printing paper is very hard to obtain now).
Congratulations on your results at school, you seem to have done very well even in Chemistry which you have not studied long. Congratulations on winning your letter for athletics, I am afraid we have very little sport over here now as most of the tracks and playing fields have “suffered” in the “dig for victory” campaign. I think I said I was waiting for my results, they came out about a fortnight ago, I managed to win a prize and also a free studentship at College. The asterisks on the cutting are just for free studentships at evening classes, I will not need this with my studentship at College. I was quite pleased with the results as I will not have to don a boiler-suit, and get covered in grease and oil anymore. My subjects will be Chemistry, Physics, Maths, Engineering and Engineering Drawing which I will have to take in my Intermediate B.Sc. next summer.
I am sorry to disagree with you, but I do on the question of the Russians, if the Russians had not resisted I am certain we would have had twice as many air-raids and twice as many civilians killed. From another point of view, they are keeping him occupied on a very long front and giving heart to the countries under him. However it would not be freedom if we could not have our own views.
I saw the meeting of The President and The Premier on the screen, and every one in the cinema was moved by it.
I have found a correspondent for Diane, so she can expect a letter soon. A pal of mine who was in Coventry during the “blitz” described it in a letter to his correspondent, it was published in an American paper shortly afterwards. However as my descriptions are never very grand, you will get a better idea of the war from the papers than an engineer can give you.
Yours sincerely
Harold

6 July 1941 - Local July 4th Celebrations - John Bull shakes hands with Uncle Sam

6.7.41

Dear Angela
Having thought, for fully five minutes for a new opening, I am afraid I must resort to the usual: - “received your letter about three days ago and have just found time to answer it”.
Perhaps if it had been a little cooler lately I would have been able to think better. We have had a heat wave for over a fortnight now and it is much too hot to do anything. I have only had one bathe during the heat because the beaches are closed except for a few hours during the day. This means that full days on the beach will be out of the question during the war.
I am expecting a weeks vacation but it will have to be spent at home as none of the country places near have any room for visitors, because of soldiers and evacuees. I would have liked a change during the week, but it would mean travelling a good distance and that is not fair during war time, as the railways have more valuable things to carry than me.
There is quite a deal of celebration here on July 4th, we heard the President’s speech at 11.00 o’clock p.m. The cutting is taken from our local paper and is at one of the schools near Washington - which is a small village about four miles from here.
A miracle happened last week - I had half an orange - the first for months. I had forgotten that apples and oranges existed until I saw some oranges last week. Mam is always making rhubarb jam to “make ends meet”, but she is expecting some English apples soon. Dad and I are always in trouble because we eat “twice as much as anyone else” - as mam says - I suppose we will do without when we can’t get it, but up to the present we haven’t suffered much.
You will be on your vacation when you read this, I hope you are having a good time, and not much “liquid sunshine”. I am finding a great difference in the holidays - I used to have eight weeks at school - I may get one at work.
You mentioned the zoo at San Francisco, I suppose you will have heard that most of the dangerous animals are being killed in our zoos because of air-raids, when they might escape.
I seem to be springing from one topic to another, but the only spring left brings me to the war, and, I don’t want to mention it during such fine weather.
Hoping you will excuse all mistakes - I remain yours sincerely
Harold