An Airman's Lost Letters

A note from the Editors: In this letter Oliver Oliver explains the letter numbering system he has started using.  A wise move for such a prolific writer sending mail regularly home from France, it has made putting the later letters in chronological order much easier for us! (We will keep up our numbering system in the post titles, which start from the first letter we have, not from when Oliver is posted to France.) Franked 9 AUG 17 Mrs Chas. E. Pearson, Hillcrest, Lowdham, Notts. No1AD Officers Pool Mess B.E.F. France 8.8.17 Letter No 4 Dear Mother I have not as yet been shifted from here & am very sore because they have sent away three junior pilots to me. I hope to be sent away almost anytime to-day or to-morrow but cannot tell. I am in future always going to number my letters as above & then you will know if any don’t arrive. I got the tip from one of the men whose letter I censored his was 178 but I hope not to get so far before I begin again after...

A note from the Editors: An undated letter, but one we think was probably written on Sunday the 5th August. The domed huts Oliver describes are the famous Nissen Huts http://www.nissens.co.uk/default.htm (letter 2) No1AD Officers Pool Mess France (Tues) Dear Mother, Just a little note as it’s Sunday to say that I haven’t been posted yet & don’t know when I shall be. Here we do no flying only loaf around waiting to be posted. We work all morning & afternoon on various jobs such as the construction of a tennis lawn on the side of a hill needing a lot of levelling & pumping water up to the main reservoir tank from the well at the bottom of the hill. This is a very small camp just a few huts clustered together round a mess hut. They are very different huts to those in England only holding about 8 beds & are more like a barrel cut in halves no sides just a rounded dome of corrugated iron lined with wood. They have a door at the end & four windows also a...

A note from the Editors: Oliver is now at the Officers Pool Mess, waiting to be posted to a Squadron. Franked 5 AUG 17 O.A.S. Mrs Chas. E. Pearson, Hillcrest, Lowdham, Notts, England. No1AD Officers Pool Mess France Frid Aug 3 Dear Mother, I am writing because at the moment I do not have anything better to do and I am in a comfortable office. I am Relieving Orderly Officer which means I have to sit here & wait for a telephone bell to ring while the real Orderly Officer has his lunch. I hope to get mine but am uncertain. I haven't been posted yet as the weather being so vile there is no flying & therefore no one is killed or injured. The above weather is phenominal. It started with a most peculiar wind storm. From a flat calm & clear sky suddenly within 5 minutes arose a violent wind with racing black clouds & thunder & lightning of great violence which all lasted about half an hour & then passed off as it started leaving all serene...