Our family have many letters sent to my father, Jack Bradley, between 1941 and 1946 as well as some letters from my father to my mother (Marie Bradley, formerly Caselaw). He was in the RAF based in India in 1943/44 and Burma in 1945/46. They were both from Durham City and had known each other as teenagers. They were married in March 1943, when he was on leave, but he returned to duty shortly after the wedding and I believe he was overseas until 1946. This letter is dated 18 March 1945, not long after their second wedding anniversary. It is 10 pages long. As well as the usual chat about life and comments on previous correspondence, this letter contained an anecdote about one of his tent/work-mates, Alf, whose name was drawn out of a ballot to get a “leave ticket”. He had to depart at 6pm that day to catch a ‘plane. Alf had a pile of clothing soaking ready for washing. The others in the tent swapped their dry, clean items for his wet items so he was able to pack in time! I don’t think they ever saw him again!.
