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...

A note from the Editors: An undated letter from Oliver, describing his journey to France. Interesting that he is the second officer ever to go over officially listed as a 'Camel Pilot'. I wonder who was the first? No 1 AD Pool Pilots BEF France Dear Mother, The above is my present abode. I crossed on Friday 26.7.17 from Folkstone to Boulogne. We had a very quiet crossing really only with a nasty beam wind which made the boat roll nastily but not enough to make me feel seedy. The crossing was too absorbingly interesting anyway. There were four boats & 3 destroyers. I had only about an hour in Boulogne so had only time to smell the awful stenches of the place & to get some food at the officers club there. I then boarded a train which took four hours to go twenty miles! It stopped twice in open county away from a station because I suppose it was getting ahead of schedule. It stopped so long at most stations (save the name in most cases) that we (I & 3...

A note from the Editors: This telegram was enclosed in the last letter we posted. Soon Oliver will no longer be training... Telegram - handed in at 6.21, received 9.48 - 26 JUL 17 TO {Pearson Hill Crest LowdhamAm going out France Friday morning early letter follows Oliver

A note from the Editors: Oliver is getting stuck into the final stages of his training at Uphaven now, putting hours in on several Sopwith machines. Franked 25 JUL 17 Mrs Chas. E. Pearson, Hillcrest, Lowdham, Notts Central Flying School, Uphaven, Wilts. 24.7.17 Dear Mother I am very sorry my last letter should have had the note of sadness in it it was not meant to convey also that this one is so late for a Sunday Epistle. You I am sure read into my letters far more than is meant to be there. I don’t withdraw any of my statements this is a dismal hole & the mess is awful so awful that we “the Nine” as we call ourselves have permanently bagged the end of a table, from which at meal times there arises howls of laughter & loud jokes to the horror of the rest of the fellows. A bicycle is impossible as I could hardly use it in the time I have left if I could get one even. Aprs la guerre Maman je explainera tout les photographses till then you must be content with...

A note from the Editors: A rather confusing letter, as Oliver describes the canoes they have been using as 'single seater scouts'. He must obviously have fighters on the brain as he has just received the news that at the Central Flying School he will be taught to fly the famous Sopwith Camel, regarded by many as one of the best fighter aircraft produced during the Great War. A reputation for being very difficult to fly, it was also incredibaly manouverble and well armed with two Vickers guns firing through the propeller. It started service in the RFC about the same time as this letter, with 70 Squadron. The Avroes Oliver refers to are the venerable Avro 504 the RFC used as trainer aircraft. 34 RS RFC Ternhill (‘Royal Flying Corps, Market Drayton‘ on headed paper) Monday Franked 14 JY 17 Mrs Chas E Pearson 5 Madeira park Tonbridge Wells Central Flying School, Uphaven, Wilts. 13.7.17 Dear Mother I am writing to announce a change of address. I came here tod...

A note from the Editors: Since posting the last letter, we have found out, via the Great War forum , that '34 RS', was in fact No34 Reserve Squadron, where Oliver would have received his advanced flying training. This letter is undated, but is very near the end of Oliver's training at Ternhill. By this stage he must have been a proficient pilot, not only to be doing long cross country flights but also giving Officers joyrides! 34 RS RFC Ternhill (‘Royal Flying Corps, Market Drayton‘ on headed paper) Monday Dear Mother Since last writing very little has happened to speak of. I have been doing about an hour a day flying but little else. The rest of my time I spend lazing round & going for walks but the latter seem to have lost their interest since I lost my pup. On Friday I took up two officers who had never been up befor, & it was really quite funny to see the way in which they went on when they came down. They got as far as having heated argument...

Franked 3 JY 17 Mrs Chas E Pearson 5 Madeira park Tonbridge Wells Kent 34 RS RFC Ternhill Nr Market Drayton (‘Royal Flying Corps, Market Drayton‘ headed paper) 5.7.17 Dear Mother I well deserve a good strafeing for not writing sooner & my excuse should have been no excuse although it was the cause as it put writing clean out of my head till lait one night as I lay in bed thinking so I wrote first off next day. Nothing has been heard or seen of the missing photos so bang goes sixpence & a lot of pleasure. To-day I loaned a motor bike & went rouring round till I ran into a lot of wounded officers painting a church porch. One of them had been on the aerodrome that morning so I stopped & had tea & a rag with them & came away a bit cheered up but life does hang heavily on ones hands now; nothing to do all day exept bite ones nails & hang around. Bettys parcel seems to have arrived safely & she seems fearfully pleased with it. I don’t think...

A note from the Editors: The first letter from Oliver while training at Ternhill, Shopshire. We are unsure what '34 RS' is. Some sort of school or squadron? We can also sympathise with Oliver on the loss of his photographs... What we'd give to see a few snapshots of his life in the RFC! Franked 3 JY 17 Mrs Chas E Pearson 5 Madeira park Tonbridge Wells Kent 34 RS RFC Ternhill Nr Market Drayton (‘Royal Flying Corps, Market Drayton‘ headed paper) Dear Mother. I am sorry to have been so long in writing to assure you I arrived safely, I have done so, but I have been very upset indeed. I went into the Mess on arriving to get my mail & found among others a bill from Kodaks for 10/6 for my last four films. I expected them to arrive next morning but was opening my other letters when one of my friends came up & said “Lets look at your photos” & I told him they hadn’t arrived & he said of course they have they arrived two days ago. It seems that...