Letter No. 12
Middle East
6.10.1942
Dear Mum,
At long last the mail from Aussie has arrived here. It was the largest mail that has ever been received. There was nearly 7,000 letters in all & I received letters No. 5,6 & 7 from you & also one from Betty. As yet the parcels have not arrived but we are expecting them in a few days. Your letters 2 & 4 have gone astray.
So far I have received no word from Aunty Lizzie but as the Victorian mail only arrived a day before the rest I don’t suppose I will get it for about another week because it will take that long for it to goto the RAF Base Accountant Officer & then back to here.
If Norm Dunn wrote to me his letter must have gone down because the only word I received from him was in a letter that Rex showed to me. I suppose I had better get his address & drop him a line. That will make 22 people I am writing to at home.
I was very glad to hear about Betty’s engagement to Leo. As soon as I got the letter I sent a cable to her & congratulated them both. I also sent one to you so I hope you received them OK.
In the last letter I received from Betty she told me that John Day’s arm was getting better so I was surprised when I received word that it was almost useless.
I suppose by now you have received word from George Brissett but he seems to have forgotten all about me because I have not heard from him at all.
Since I left Aussie I have taken over 250 photos & I have got them in an album & I can’t send them home because I have written on the back of them & if they have any marks on the back they will not go through the censor.
I have written abut 10 letters to Betty Nelson & so far I have had no word from her at all. I imagined that there was something wrong but I didn’t count on her being engaged to a Yank. You would think that she would have been decent enough to write & let me know. I suppose a
that all my letters are still at Randwick.
You asked me in your letter to drop a line to Viv & Maureen but there is absolutely nothing I could write to them about so give them my love & tell them that I am too busy to write. If they send me a few lines I will answer it but otherwise its not much use at all.
Last ……(CENSORED)………..night as usual & we saw Charlie McCarthy in “Look Who’s Laughing”. It was the funniest show I have seen for a long while & it had the mob in fits.
Next time you are sending a parcel will you see if you can get Leo to get me some tobacco. Supplies have been getting rather short & now they have been cut out all together. Ask him to get it in tins if possible because they are sealed & so stays fresh.
Also if you can get some Ingrams Shaving Cream as I have started shaving again. When the beard goes for about a week it gets full of sand & is a nuisance so now I shave weekly.
The tucker is still as good as ever & my mate & I were having a go to see who was the best eater but yesterday we went to breakfast & ‘Boey’, my mate ate 4 eggs, 8 slices of bacon & 8 full rounds of toast so I decided that it was time to retire from the competition & let him have the honours.
No more for now I will write again in about a week. Give my love to Dad & Betty
Lovingly Yours.
Frank x x
Letter No 12 (cont.)
6.10.1942
Dear Boop,
I have just finished writing to Mum & this is just a short note in answer to your letter.
First of all I have to congratulate you on your engagement to Leo. I have been expecting to hear it for some time but I will tell you that if you get married before I get home you’re definitely not getting an invitation to my wedding - that is, if I can find someone who will have me, but I have just worked it out that I missed your 21st birthday party, the engagement party & I will be over here for my 21st but if I miss the wedding breakfast you’re in the black book for good.
If you want material for a wedding frock let me know what you want & I will get it for you. There is always plenty of English & French girls in town who would be only too pleased to help us buy it. Don’t forget to find out for certain if you would lose your ration tickets or not if I send anything home to you. I still have your pyjamas & kimono in my kit bag & I will hang on until I hear how you will fare with the tickets.
I wish I had received your letter about a month ago & then I would have known about Betty Nelson because I sent her a beautiful silver bracelet & on it I had ‘With love from Frank’ - mug me. I suppose it will go to Randwick & she will never see it.
I wrote to Mrs Hansen about a fortnight ago & I will send Miss Moody a card a Christmas time so I won’t exactly lose touch with them.
I also wrote to Fred Lowe last week but I addressed it to Amberley because that was the only address I had. I hope that I will finally catch up with him. Next time you have a spare hour will you go to Air Force Headquarters & see if you can get his correct address. His number is 33475 & he is an instrument maker.
I think you are under the wrong impression about the telegram I sent referring to the parcel I sent. What I tried to tell you was that I was worried about the model of the Taj Mahal I sent from Bombay & I wanted to cable me if it had arrived but I think it must have got lost on the way.
Well, Boop, I had better close & get back to work. Give my love to Mum & Dad & also my kindest regards to my future brother-in-law.
Lots of Love
Frank
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