大象传媒

3rd June 1986

Dear David,

Many thanks for your letter, I was pleased to hear from you again and to know that you are all fit and well at least for the moment. Thanks too, for sending the copy of the Burton Daily Mail which was most interesting. I do remember your mothers sister Dorothy. Surely she lived with your Mum and Dad when they were at Didcot. I went there on two occasions and once I stayed for a week. Is till have several snaps taken at the time and some of them have Dorothy鈥檚 picture on them. Forty years ago it must have been quite an occasion. The main head-line on that paper also interested me. I was in Calcutta some months before that date, waiting for a ship to bring me home. There were riots in that city too, and in fact we were confined to camp because of them.

I am very sorry to hear about the possibility of you being made redundant. You spoke about this when you were last here and If I re4member you said you would not mind so much if they could hold it off for a few more years. I do hope that you will be one of the lucky ones to stay on, I realise the chances of getting another job must be very small indeed. Aunt Maud and I will both keep out fingers crossed for you.

I am not really surprised that you haven鈥檛 had a reply from Uncle Len. He did have the operation on his eye which was successful up to a point but he still has very little sight and I would imagine that writing a letter is a bit beyond him. I usually telephone him now to keep in touch. His friend Frances, who live sin the flat above, and looks after him very well has been ill herself. She was in hospital for a couple of weeks and although she is back home she is not very robust, but between them they seem to manage quite well. Len tells me he always eats very well and is able to manage what needs to be done.

Yes I did know that you had written to aunt Lily. She was thrilled to bits that you had done so. What a pity you could not for o see her when you were in London. I am sure she would have loved to see you all. She is very lonely now, most of her gamily have moved away and she does not see them very often. She also does not enjoy good health.

You asked about 鈥淥ur Bomb鈥�. Well this happened on the night of 10th May 1941. At least that was when the air raid stayed although the bomb actually fell about 1am of the 11thj. We were living at No. 168 Clive Road West Dulwich at the time. The bomb disposal squad said it was a 250 kilo bomb and they could not understand why it did not go off. Believe it or not the bomb finished up under the bed we were laying in. After it had been removed I crawled in to see the marks it had left.
To get back to more pleasant matter, like the weather. We actually have not had too bad a winter. No snow to speak of and certainly not anything to prevent us getting about. This little corner of the North coast of Devon seemed to miss it all, South and East Devon had more than their share of snow at times. We also had very little rain, I have never sent he little stream in front of out house so low in water during the winter period. It usually manages to flood into the road at least once. Wheat we have had though it continuous strong cold wind. This has made life miserable at times, particularly when we go into Braunton or Barnstable and have to hang about in the cold waiting for a Bus. That is when I really miss the car. Come to think of it, have I told you that I disposed of it? Just in case I forgot to tell you, I sold it in January. It was in need of considerable repair, mainly due to rust and it had got to the stage that no sooner was one thing put right than something else had to be done. So we decided to call it a day. Now we have to rely on buses and would you believe it only this Monday we were due to have a new bus system start, small mini buses instead of the usual one. Unfortunately on the morning they were due to start operating the drivers decided to come out on strike and so far this is still going on.

Thanks for the information about my Grandmother, it is certainly all new to me. Makes me wonder how they all came to meet, we are talking about over 100 years ago and in those days travelling was not quite so easy as it is now. Maybe though there were not so many strikes.

Well I think this is about all for now, Aunt Maud sends her love to you all and we both hope you keep well, all the family and mother as well. If you come down his way we shall be most please to see you again.

Best Wishes

Uncle Bern

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jim Salveson from the CSV Action Desk on behalf of David Feltham and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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