Letters of James Stuart Leslie Ross, 1918-1919 - Part 7

5

Lawrence in town some time ago. He 

had seen Bob just before leaving. He had 

just come over and seemed quite awed 

to find me a Lieut.

I a received the £25 a few days ago.  
Thanks awfully for sending it some 

promptly and I hope it didn't inconvenience 

you at all.
I hope Dad is better and that you 

are keeping well - it wont be so very long 

now before I'm home xx. I may leave here

 about the end of August. If Doug and I could

only pull the Flights off, we ^will all be 

happy. I would bring Jean back here for a 

trip.

Am enclosing a couple of snaps - will get some 

proper photos taken soon.

Have just had a letter from Kath 

suggesting a caravan tour of North Scotland 

in August - it would be lovely. 

Will write again soon.

Much love from

Your loving Son, Les

Doug is a great boy and a real sport. By the way, 

he was Amateur "welter" Boxing Champion of Queensland 

before the war - is only 24 now.

6

I don’t expect we'll get much flying down

at Andover. It will be mainly classes

& fagging in the ground. It's a big

subject & will mean work.

 

School of Aerial Navigation,

Andover, Hants.,

2^nd June, 1919.

Dear Mum,

My last letter to you was

from Wendover a couple of weeks ago.

I have been at the above address

for about a fortnight now.

It's not a bad course - its the

latest thing in Aerial Navigation in

this country but that, so far, is more

or less still in the experimental

stage. We are pretty lucky in getting

to the School as most of the officers

under instruction are above the rank

of Lieut. There are only 2 Austlns

other than Douglas and myself here -

a Major & a Wireless officer.

The machines we fly are the big

twin-engined xx Handley Page's. They are

terrible things after the nice little

Scouts we've been flying - they're

clumsy, heavy & painfully slow.

At present we are still doing

theory on the ground, but next

 

2

week, we start on the actual navigation.

The first month is Dead Reckoning Navigation,

next Direction Finding by Wireless & then

more advanced again.

The weather has been just glorious

lately & we've had a couple of nice

joyrides over Southampton, the Isle

of Wight etc. The country is looking

wonderful.

There's been great excitement here

over Hawker's attempt at the Atlantic -

I suppose they were a bit excited in

Australia too. It certainly was a 

decent effort too, but the demonstrations

& hysterics were out of all proportion.

As one level-headed aeroplane

journalist asked "How do they propose

to celebrate when someone actually

crosses it." The whole thing was agitated

by the Northcliffe Press & certainly is

a great testimonial to their advertising

value.

Last time I told you of my idea

about attempting the flight to Australia.

We now have a couple of firms with

 

3

whom we think we stand fair chance

of getting a machine.

We went to see the Martinsyde people

last Saturday week. No doubt you have

seen their name in the papers in connection

with the Atlantic Flight - Raynham is

flying for them - he crashed when Hawker

left but is having another go.

We struck them at rather a lucky time.

There had just been a meeting of directors

& they had decided to enter for the Austln

flight. We had a long talk to 2 of

the heads & they seemed somewhat impressed -

anyhow they gave us a good hearing and

asked us to send them a full

detailed history of our careers to

date. We posted that a few days ago

& are waiting results. I hope we get

their bus as its a beauty - exactly

the same as their Atlantic machine

but with half the petrol capacity. it

has a 275 hp Rolls Royce engine & the

Austln one will carry about 13 or 14

hours petrol. We feel confident of

being able to do it if only we get

 

 

4.

a bit of luck with the engine. There's

practically no danger as its nearly all over

the land. We would go thro' France, Italy,

probably Constantinople, Palestine, Mesopotania, India

& down Malay States & Islands to Pt Darwin.

Of course if we get it, I'll be able to

give you the full details later. There's

too much technical stuff to make it all

clear to you in a letter.

The other firm that we have a

chance with is Boulton & Paul

of Norwich. They are a very good

firm & have designed some exceptionally

good types since the armistice. They

haven't yet decided whether to compete

or not but have asked for partics.

of our flying etc. in case they do.

Everything is still very much in

the air, but something definite may

turn up & I'll keep you posted.

We have to do everything on the quiet

as there are lots of Austlns in the

R.A.F. & A.F.C. very anxious to get

the opportunity, so until we get something

definite, we got to keep it dark.

 

5.

I haven't even told Lee.

I had a letter from him the other

day - He is doing a drawing course at

the London Uni & is living in town.

I m am expecting to go up next week

to see him.

Old Doug is alongside me

practising working out courses but as

its getting very late I think we'll turn

in.

Much love to you all

from 

Les.

What's Bob doing now? Has he

gone back to the Bank?

Poor Jean must be getting fed-up

with Bourke. I haven't written to

her for ages. Tell her I'll write

soon & Do if Doug & I can only be

first to do the trip, we'll give her

a real decent holiday.

 

 

Blank page

 

 

School of Aerial Nav.

Andover,

19.6.19

Dear Mum,

It's about a fortnight

since I last wrote - there's been

no Aus. mail in the meantime.

We continue to have glorious

weather & the country is looking

a picture.

Auntie Em is back in London

& I've had a couple of letters from

her. I was going to town this

weekend to see her, but have just

got a letter to say that she's going

to France for a few days so I'll

have to put it off for a week or

two.

I spent last weekend with Lee.

He's staying with some people who

have a nice place at Lee (South

East London). Rather a xxxx peculiar

that the suburb should be his name.

He is on non Military employment

doing a drawing course. It's a jolly

 

2

good stunt - he gets 6/6 living allowance

outside his pay & lives like a civilian.

Another A.F.C. boy is out with him &

they are both "dug in" very comfortably.

Here, of course, I'm on Military

work so don't get the allowance, but

I don't mind that as it's a good

course.

We have been doing a lot of

flying lately. There are 5 in my class.

Douglas does all the actual piloting,

while the rest of us (3 R.A.F. Captains & self)

do the navigating & map reading etc, in

turns. Yesterday we flew up to

a place near Banbury & fired ^coloured lights

& let balloons loose etc as a 

friend of one of the instructors here

was getting married. It was only a

small village & all the inhabitants

appeared wildly excited.

Doug & I are very pleased with the

progress we are making. He's a jolly

fine pilot & I've been easily top

in all the exams. to date which

doesn't say much for the others.

There are new conditions out about