Sunday 23rd June 1940
ENTERTAINMENT OF MEMBERS OF H.M. FORCES
ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS
THE GUILDHALL,
SALISBURY
Pte RK Williams
6th Bath & Dorset Regt.
Quidhampton
Nr Salisbury
Wilts
Darling Chotie,
I’m writing this in the Court Room of the Guidhall Salisbury, in the Company of about 200 members of HM Forces. At least half of these are Australians as the place is packed with them. I left camp this morning at 9 and do not have to return until 10, this evening. I hope to come home one of these Sundays as I appear to get Sundays off at present. I can get a bus to Bournemouth at 9am which gets me in about 11. I should have to leave again at 6 in the evening, so it would be a case of hail and farewell.
I went to the morning service at the Cathedral – the choir was wonderful.
There are hundreds of commissions in Salisbury. I’ve thrown about 200 salutes so far without knocking my hat off. We wear battle dress, and I managed to get myself a hot overcoat.
In this room there are RAF blokes, Aussies, Sailors, Merchant Seamen, and every kind of soldier, but no officers of course. They dish out envelopes and this paper quite free which explains why I’m using it… I miss you an awful lot, Chotie, but when I see these Australians who have come thousands of miles and won’t get home for years, I feel it would be selfish to grumble.
You can write to the address overleaf if you wish. Found a Captain yet…? It is now impossible to get a commission until one is twenty*. As far as I know it is also impossible to get a stripe.
I must close for the moment
love (every bit)
Dicker
PS Please give my best wishes to all the boys if you should see them and tell them to join anything but the army!
* Dick was eighteen when he joined up and wrote this letter. At the time only men aged between 20 and 35 were being conscripted.
© Chotie Darling, 2010
25th June 1940 – The Times reported that the Australian troops, recently arrived in England, were training keenly in ‘a lovely stretch of English countryside’.
Recent Comments