Description
Object description
Microfilm copy of an extensive collection of several hundred ms/ts letters written home to her mother and aunt while serving as a NCO with the WAAF initially at RAF West Kirby, Cheshire in December 1944, of a mainly personal nature but describing her off-duty activities, attendance at church, her enthusiasm for service abroad, her embarkation and the impressive conditions on board ship during their voyage including Christmas celebrations; then at the RAF Base Headquarters in Colombo, Ceylon, January - October 1945, referring to the climate and local people, the relative absence of white women in Ceylon, recreational activities including the cinema, dining out and day trips to other parts of Ceylon, the lack of regular mail, her friendships with fellow WAAFs and RAF officers and men, her ambition to be posted to India, reading habits, her duties as secretary to the WAAF Staff Advisory Officer, the scarcity of fashionable clothes and cosmetics, a period in sick bay recovering from an infected leg wound (May 1945), VE Day and VJ Day celebrations and Victory parades, her reaction to film of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp, the huge number of arachnids and insects they were troubled by, and her love life and hopes for marriage, while providing a retrospective account of her voyage to Ceylon (see letter of 1 June 1945) and very interesting descriptions of the reception of liberated Far Eastern prisoners of war and internees in September 1945 before their repatriation to the UK and the stories they told her of Japanese atrocities; and finally with the Meteorological Section, HQ Air Command South East Asia in Singapore, October 1945 - November 1946, describing her hopes for a speedy demobilisation, billets in Tanglin Barracks and Changi Camp and life in postwar Singapore, her new romance and marriage to an RAF Flight Sergeant in Singapore faced by the difficulties caused by postwar austerity, her dislike of Japanese prisoners of war, and her voyage home on board the OTRANTO. Together with official forms and letters relating to her marriage in 1946 to Flight Sergeant J J Duignan; her RAF service and release book (RAF Form 2520B) and notice paper; 5 ms letters (total 17pp), March - September 1946, from her fiance and later husband addressed to her aunt; 10 ms letters and airgraphs (total 12pp) from her cousin Jimmy Sibthorp to their aunt while serving as an Officer Cadet with India Command, June 1942 - September 1944; and a ts article (7pp) from THE STRAND MAGAZINE of 19 July 1946 describing the Buddhist festival of Wesak in Ceylon in May 1945.
Content description
Microfilm copy of an extensive collection of several hundred ms/ts letters written home to her mother and aunt while serving as a NCO with the WAAF initially at RAF West Kirby, Cheshire in December 1944, of a mainly personal nature but describing her off-duty activities, attendance at church, her enthusiasm for service abroad, her embarkation and the impressive conditions on board ship during their voyage including Christmas celebrations; then at the RAF Base Headquarters in Colombo, Ceylon, January - October 1945, referring to the climate and local people, the relative absence of white women in Ceylon, recreational activities including the cinema, dining out and day trips to other parts of Ceylon, the lack of regular mail, her friendships with fellow WAAFs and RAF officers and men, her ambition to be posted to India, reading habits, her duties as secretary to the WAAF Staff Advisory Officer, the scarcity of fashionable clothes and cosmetics, a period in sick bay recovering from an infected leg wound (May 1945), VE Day and VJ Day celebrations and Victory parades, her reaction to film of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp, the huge number of arachnids and insects they were troubled by, and her love life and hopes for marriage, while providing a retrospective account of her voyage to Ceylon (see letter of 1 June 1945) and very interesting descriptions of the reception of liberated Far Eastern prisoners of war and internees in September 1945 before their repatriation to the UK and the stories they told her of Japanese atrocities; and finally with the Meteorological Section, HQ Air Command South East Asia in Singapore, October 1945 - November 1946, describing her hopes for a speedy demobilisation, billets in Tanglin Barracks and Changi Camp and life in postwar Singapore, her new romance and marriage to an RAF Flight Sergeant in Singapore faced by the difficulties caused by postwar austerity, her dislike of Japanese prisoners of war, and her voyage home on board the OTRANTO. Together with official forms and letters relating to her marriage in 1946 to Flight Sergeant J J Duignan; her RAF service and release book (RAF Form 2520B) and notice paper; 5 ms letters (total 17pp), March - September 1946, from her fiance and later husband addressed to her aunt; 10 ms letters and airgraphs (total 12pp) from her cousin Jimmy Sibthorp to their aunt while serving as an Officer Cadet with India Command, June 1942 - September 1944; and a ts article (7pp) from THE STRAND MAGAZINE of 19 July 1946 describing the Buddhist festival of Wesak in Ceylon in May 1945.
History note
Cataloguer APR
History note
Catalogue date 2003-04-04