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Letter 2

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A note from the Editors:

Two months into his flying training, here is the first letter we have from Oliver on Royal Flying Corps headed note paper, with the RFC wings and latin moto PER ADUA AD ASTRA underneath - 'Through adversity to the Stars'.

Franked 25 NOV 16 OXFORD
Mrs C. E. Pearson,
Hillcrest,
Lowdham,
Notts.

Royal Flying Corps,
Christchurch,
Oxford.
25.11.16

My dear Mother,

I hope my note arrived safely. Life here now is one eternal bore as we have nothing to do to speak of & plenty of time to do it in & we might all just as well be on leave.

I shall not write a decent letter as I have just spilled 3 or 4 blobs of ink onto my new cord breeches & it has made me very angry. I hope to remove whats left of the stain to-morrow.

The first day on the higher instruction course has been typical so I will let you have it. Loaf around with nothing to do till 11 oclock when we do an hours lamp signalling to which no one plays the least attention as it is fearfully painfully slow & boring to read. Go home to lunch at 12. At about 3 oclock think it would be fun to go for a joy ride in the lorry down to the rigging sheds so go & assist about 30 others to place in posistion about 10 spars in a field service aeroplane hanger being erected for instructional purposes.

The who would have taken 5 men 10 minutes to do we take 1 hour & a ¼. Joy ride back & dismiss ourselves outside a tea shop in the Cornmarket at four (usually don’t get off till 6.) & so ends a strenuous day & so it will always be until we a posted! Oh my stars I don’t know how I shall survive. I have given my name to all the team captains & bought a large bottle of Enos so perhaps between the two I shall be kept running.

There is no news so till next week or when some happens au reviour.

With love to all at home
From
Oliver
Please give enclosed chit to dad
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