Reference
AU10/102/1/64
Title
Handwritten letter
Date free text
16 March 1955
Production date
From: 1955 To: 1955
Scope and Content
"Many happy returns of the Day! The enclosed grubby card is one I bought in Palestine many years ago: but I have not been able to get into Broadstairs today, as I hoped, to find you a proper Birthday card. So please make the best of it. Thank you for your letter of Feb. 26th with Radwell's address. No: I have not bought another car. My friend George Petrie has one, which we more or less share. But I get to Walmer quite easily by train from Broadstairs. There is also a 'bus from Ramsgate. Communications are very good in this part of England, I find. The journey to London is rather long - just over two hours: but they keep saying the line is going to be electrified all the way (now it goes only as far as Chatham), then we shall have some fast trains.
I expect Aunt Eva has gone to hospital by now. Actually, I am awaiting a bed in a private ward at Ramsgate Hospital myself! I don't suppose you will remember (if you ever knew, in fact) but in my early years at Ampthill I had a blocked tear-duct. The moisture gathers in the tear-sac at the corner of the eye, which swells up, and eventually I have to press it out through the nose, or have it running down my cheek. Dr.Armstrong in Bedford probed the duct: and later, for some reason I cannot recollect, I went into Dr.Bellwood's home and had an operation on my nose. Well, for some years the condition was considerably eased. However, for some years now it has been coming on again, and is now quite serious. So I have consulted an opthalmic surgeon here, who is apparently an authority on tear-ducts (he wrote his MD thesis on the subject), and he is going to operate. I shall be heartily relieved when it is over and done with. Returning to your letter, Kenneth Akin left the Police Force in 1948, and took up some travelling job. I don't know what he is doing now. But his Christmas card came from his wife's home at Arlesey. I wrote to him on his birthday early this month: probably I shall hear again from him soon. It sounds as if his sister Barbara's husband is a TB case.
At last we are getting some glimpses of sunshine, after weeks of snow, blizzard, and bitterly cold East winds, which I do not like! However, it is warm and cosy inside the thick walls of this castle, and the sea air evidently suits me as I have had no cold at all this winter. There are stretches of fine open country on the cliff-tops on both sides of us, so we have only to go outside for a good blow!
Yours sincerely"
Level of description
item