FAC159/1/124

Letter: from Richard Dillingham at No 21 Kite & Balloon Section RFC Camp, [France] to Christine Dillingham at Kings Road, Flitwick - writer is pleased to hear his family are all well and that it is her letters he most looks forward to receiving; - comments he is getting tired of being out there and away from her; - notes he has been shifted back to his camp but would have rather stayed where he was as it was nice to get away from the routine and parades; - notes they had to send the balloon up at a quarter to four in the morning and then later on build a cookhouse; - comments that they get two or three days with too much work to do and then just the opposite; - notes the weather has turned very cold again and it rained nearly all day, "This is a very poor country to be in round here during wet weather as it is very flat and damp"; - comments the people seem to be very decent and a lot cleaner than the last place; - notes they all seem to be anxious to learn to speak English and that they get on with them very well, "They think wonders of the English soldier": - notes all men who have been in France over 9 months will be entitled to leave but those who have been out for twelve months will get it first, and thinks that he will be home by about the end of September; - is sorry to hear that his mother is poorly and wishes she wouldn't worry herself so much; - notes Bert has got to pay a 10 fine for not ploughing his land, "Well all I can say it serves him right, the silly old fool, it will teach him a lesson"; - asks if he had his horses and straw insured; - notes she has been cutting the garden hedge and is glad she is still as independent as ever; - notes Lizzie has some bantam chickens and that she is going to give the boys one each; - hopes the children will get their postcards by the 22nd and thinks he should have posted them a day or two earlier, "He will be four wont he?"; - comments that it has been jolly hard to have been away from them and her for so long; - asks how Flo and George are now?; - "It seems such a long time since I saw you and the children last, it seems years instead of months to me"; - notes he has just finished a 2 hour guard and has to go back on again, "Shan't I be glad when I am finished with this sort of business and can go to bed in a decent bed with you and get a good nights rest instead of having to stalk about half the night"; - asks how the Feast Sunday went but expects things were rather quiet as there are not a great lot of people with much money to spare; - "Was there the same parade outside old Fred Martins or isn't there so much beer about now?; - notes what a change to some of the Feast Sundays when he was at home;

August 1917

From: 1917 To: 1917

item

Dillingham, Richard,
Dillingham, Christine,
Martin, Fred

horses, postcards, chickens, letters, military balloons, weather, postcards, ploughing, beer, feasts, rain, FLITWICK, France