Letters of Ronald Henry Etherton, January - February 1944 - Part 1 of 7

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421340

TO:- Miss Jean AYRE
13007- 122 St.,
EDMONTON
Alberta Canada

DATE STAMP 
-3 JAN 44 
__________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________
Sender's Address Aus 423088 Sgt Etherton R.H. RAAF Base P.O London England 
Letter 61 1st January 1944 
Dearest Jean,
Don't be surprised if you receive two letters,
counting this, dated 1st January because there's still over 
23 hours of it to go. The first hour of 1944 has almost gone. 
Gee, I wish I could have been the first to kiss you
and wish you a Happy Year. Can I still be the first to
kiss you? I wonder whether it will be 1944 when I can.
I've just realised that it's five months and eight and a 
bit days since I kissed anyone. But that's just another
way of say that it's that long since I saw you and I'm
very much aware of that because I've been counting each 
day. 
Seeing that the crew weren't together at Christmas, we
were determined to have some celebration tonight. It was
nearly a flop. We went into Elgin in the afternoon, had
tea and went to the pictures. When we came out it was
raining. After waiting half an hour for a 'bus back to Forres
we couldn't get on and had to take the train. It was
very crowded and by this time we were pretty fed up. We
had something to eat and came back to camp. It was
far brighter in the mess than anywhere else we had 
been so we welcomed in the year there. More tomorrow later. 
Ron 
______________________________________________________________ 
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Letter 62
Sat 1st January 1944 
Dear Jean, 
Do you mind if I chew while 
I write. It's some of the Chiclets you 
sent. Gee, I don't care how they 
knocked the wrapping around but 
I hope they didn't damage your present. 
Which tooth did the dentist pull out? 
Is Was it the one that used to ache 
sometimes? Your cold should be gone 
long ago. I guess you've been skating 
quite a bit by now. I wish I could 
go with you. It'd be even more fun 
than roller. I'll bet you look prettier 
still with the snow around you. I 
can easily picture you on 112(?) rink but 
it'd be much better if I were there too. 
Sunday 2nd Jan. 
You should be a mannequin. Gee, 
you look smart in your hat, and 
suit, I mean suit and hat. It was 
the hat I noticed first, I mean second. 
2. 
Why don't you like it? 
Jean, our love has not set. You've 
seen the sun pass behind a cloud 
and though it still shines 
und indirectly you wait impatiently 
for the cloud to pass so that the 
sun will shine full bright again. 
And when it does you feel it 
warmer than before because you 
know better what it means to you. 
I do not forget - I will never 
forget 
- Ron

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AWM 2016 832.1 

BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL. 

62 
78
Miss Jean Ayre
13007 122 St.
Edmonton
Alberta Canada

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Sender's name and address:-
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton R.H 
RAAF Base P.O 
London England 

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Write the address in large BLOCK letters in the panel below. 
The address must NOT be typewritten. 
708662

TO:- Mr. A. AYRE
13007-122 St..
EDMONTON
Alberta Canada 

Date Stamp
___________________________________________________________________ 
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___________________________________________________________________
Sender's Address Aus 423088 Sgt Etherton R.H RAAF Base P.O London 
3rd January 1944 
Dear Mrs and Mr Ayre, 
I want to thank you for your
Christmas greetings and presents. You are very kind
and I appreciate your thoughtfulness very much. I
do like your city but there is much more reason for
me to come back. You know why. Look after Jean
for me, won't you. I love her very much and some
day not too far away, I hope, I'll be back to
make her mine. 
I'm sorry I couldn't accept your invitations
that Jean writes me about but this can't go on for
ever and with a bit of luck I'll be able to take
advantage of one of them some time - in fact, many
of them. You'll soon be sick of the sight of me.
I've been very unfortunate as far as leave, or
the lack of it, goes but I must get some sooner or
later. I'll look up you cousin, or is it Jean's cousin, 
then.
I cannot in words thank you properly for bringing
Jean into this world for me to meet so will have to
wait until I can do so some other way. Yours sincerely Ron
__________________________________________________________________ 
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Letter 63
Wed 5th January 1944 
Dearest Jean,
Gee, these forms are terrible
quality paper, aren't they. I can't get
the better ones because the Post
Office has run out. I can't even buy
some threepenny stamps for Airgraphs.
I've never seen such a bunch of
dumb clucks gathered together
under the one roof as in there. I
hope you can still get air forms.
If anything happens that interferes
with your letters, I'll get mad. I
prefer the air letters still, dont
you. I haven't put your letters
together in order for some time.
I must do so soon to see whether
there are any missing. I've been
receiving so many lately that it'll be
quite a job. I'll have to be careful
too, else you'll be catching up 
2. 
with and passing my numbers. But
don't you be scared of doing it.
Just write all you can. I love
every one. Some days I miss
writing. Don't think I've forgotten
you. I don't - not for one minute 
But sometimes I'm just too tired
to stay awake long enough. And
sometimes, like tonight I cant
write much so, I just say
Goodnight and all my love
Ron.

BY AIR MAIL 
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL 
63

Miss Jean Ayre
13007- 122 St.,
Edmonton
Alberta Canada 

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Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton R.H 
RAAF Base P.O 
London 
England

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Letter 64
Thursday
6th Jan '44
Dearest Jean,
I received just one letter
from you today. I'm glad it was
only one because I know there are
more on the way and there's a good
chance there'll be more tomorrow. I'd
rather get them one at a time but
they usually come in twos, threes
or more.
y You didn't say what you
thought of the Whitleys. They're ugly
things, aren't they? They're big too but
the pilot, bomber, navigator and w/op
are all crowded up the front and
there's no room to move about at all.
We get oranges now and then
as a special ration but they're
pretty good. I think they're Spanish.
We took a card board box full of
them up with us one day. I didn't 
2 
have time to eat any but others
couldn't neither because they were
frozen hard. I was glad because I
didn't want to lose my share of them.
You know those pennants they
have. Have you seen any with Edmonton
on. Sammy has a few and we're
going to get as many as we can to
pin up around the room. I'll put
the Edmonton one just near your
photo.
This is one of those nights when
I can't stop myself from lapsing into
daydreams. I think I'll go to bed.
Then they'll be real dreams
Goodnight, Sweetheart
Ron 
X X X

BY AIR MAIL
AIR LETTER 
IF ANYTHING IS ENCLOSED 
THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT 
BY ORDINARY MAIL.

64 

Miss Jean Ayre
13007 - 122 St.,
Edmonton
Alberta Canada 

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Sender's name and address:- 
Aus 423088 
Sgt Etherton R.H. 
RAAF Base P.O 
London England

←To open cut here