This is one of the first letters our dad, Adrian Marsden sent home to the family farm near Bakewell from RAF training in London. Although farming was a reserve occupation he wanted to join up and so he did in in 1943 when he was 19. He says in the letter that he never even thinks about farming anymore and, in fact, he didn’t ever go back to it.
This letter is dated 27th May 1943 a week after he had arrived in London for air crew training. He wanted to be a pilot (as they all did) but eventually trained as a gunner gaining over 200 hours of flying experience as a mid-upper and rear gunner in Wellingtons and Lancasters. The training was suspended in early 1945 and he was transferred to other duties and so he never saw active duty.
Dad found all the letters when our grandma died in 1986. He loved reading them; they made him laugh at his young self. We 4 read some of them with him in 1986 but we only started reading them properly last year (there are over 300 of them).
In this letter which is typical of (19 year old) Adrian, it is clear how much he is enjoying crew training. His letters particularly the early ones, are full of new friends, new experiences (including learning to swim which he loved), air crew training, the food, and in those early weeks in London, visiting tourist attractions. In the letter he also asks for some chocolate “if there is a bit floating round”, though he admits he has had some from the NAAFI this week. He encloses in the letter this photo of himself with his new RAF haircut.
He was stationed at lots of different places round Britain including Stratford upon Avon and Lossiemouth near Inverness and in 1945 Dad was sent to India. He was stationed in Bombay and worked in the RAF post office there. He bought a camera before he sailed so we have some wonderful pictures of him there, his friends and one with him and a baby elephant.
