(24) Millom,
Cumberland,
13-4-42
Dear Mum and Dad,
This letter was theoretically started over a week ago back in Bournemouth, but in actual practice something slipped up so I’m now trying to make up for lost time.
Our leave started with a rush last Tuesday evening, and Tom and I left at once for London where we had four days. Wednesday, of course, was my birthday, and I got a present out of it, too. You see, we called at the Army Base Post Office in London, and behold! there was a letter from you, dated February 1, and wishing me many happy returns! It had followed us over from Canada, and turned up right on the dot.
We stopped with a Presbyterian minister and his wife in London – a Rev. and Mrs. Moffett, who were very good to us. We got the invitation through the Lady Frances Ryder scheme, which you probably don’t know much about. It’s an idea they have for providing hospitality for overseas men who want some place to go on leave; you supply your preference, and they supply the hostess. In our case it worked out very satisfactorily.
I suppose that you folks, like all the rest of us before we actually got here, had the idea that London was practically flattened out, but we have discovered that that is very far from being the case. Of course, there are some areas where there are not many bricks left standing on top of one another, but on the other hand there are still huge areas which are practically untouched.
The blackout is, of course, very strictly enforced, but probably no more strictly than is the case at home by now. In London all the stage and screen shows start between six and seven, and are out between nine and nine-thirty. At that hour it is still quite light, now they have introduced double summer time, and we didn’t ever have any trouble finding our way home. We saw several good stage-plays, and I think as good a one as I have come across for a long time was “Quiet Week-End”, a sequel to “Quiet Wedding”, which I think has been made into a picture. It was really funny, and was also well-acted. Most of the theatres in London are still going strong, and they draw good crowds, too.
We went sightseeing as well, of course, and saw Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower Bridge, Big Ben and all the rest of it. London has a very complicated sort of geography, and is nowhere near as easy to find the way around in as was New York; however, there is still a very good ‘bus service and that helps a lot. Nearly all the buses have conductresses who seem quite good at the job.
London isn’t the only interesting place I have visited, as before we left to go on leave we were able to get out to Salisbury, over the Easter period, to take a look at their famous cathedral. It is indeed a remarkable building, dating from some time in the 1200’s. The town of Salisbury suffers badly from a handicap which seems to be not uncommon in this country – footpaths so narrow that half the pedestrians give it up in disgust and use the streets. There was something else on the go there which we don’t see at home; an open-air market place, doing good business, too.
Ray Mellsop and I took a ‘bus out to Christchurch one afternoon, too. It was a very different proposition from the Christchurch we know, though this Christchurch also has an Avon River. Its principal point of interest for us was an old Norman priory there, part of which is about 800 years old. We climbed round and round narrow little stone staircases inside the circular turrets until we found ourselves on top of the leaden roof, quite by accident. They built well in those days, because the priory was in very good order despite its age.
There were some ruins nearby which haven’t lasted so well; these are the remains of an old Norman keep, which must have been a beauty in its day as the walls of the remaining fragment are ten feet thick. I have photographs of all these places which I’ll show you one fine day, but in the meantime I don’t trust the mails very far.
I should mention, by the way, that we spent the first hour of our Christchurch visit sitting in a teashop looking out disconsolately at a very persistent downpour, which came out of a blue sky. At least, it was blue when we set out. You just can’t trust this English climate of theirs, especially in April.
Before I forget to mention it, I think you might as well make my address: c/o New Zealand Army Base Post Office, Agar St., London, as they have taken over the handling of our mail.
I almost forgot to tell you that there is a very good New Zealand Forces Club in London which looks after the services very well. We could get jolly good meals there at half the price they would have cost anywhere else; that must be a big point with some of the chaps as London is not a cheap place to spend one’s leave. Sooner or later everyone goes to the Forces Club, and that way, on my last night in London, I met a chap whom I haven’t seen since we both left Napier Boys’ High and the tender care of Potty Foster four years ago. He is over here training for the Fleet Air Arm, and from what he said, they certainly get all the scruffy jobs for their first few months in the service. Small wonder Bob Heath had fun and games. I wonder where he is by now? If I had only thought of it while we were there, the Base Post Office could probably have given me his address.
It was good to read that you are getting along O.K., Pa; keep it up, now. I know you’d like to be over here doing a spot of sightseeing yourself; just quietly, I wouldn’t mind having Charlotte Henrietta over here with a full tank of gas (oh! pardon my American!).
Good old Lin, getting his Matric! I wish I could have remembered his birthday in time, but anyway wish him “many happies” from me.
As you will have observed, I have reached Millom and have met Peggy’s aunts and uncles here. It seemed funny to see snaps of her, and of Hastings, ‘way over here, of all places. Small world, isn’t it? Or have I pointed that out before?
That’s all for this time, folks, so love to you both from
Arnold G.