Skip to main content

Letter 4 - The mystery of the missing photos and cross country flying

Image
By
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 they had been taken by someone between 5 oclock that day and 10 when I came for them. Since I have posted notices enquired everywhere & raised cain generally to no effect & so I have lost about 40 prints & 18 films of no value to anyone but myself you would think. I have flown over to the aerodrome to which one of the squadrons here moved & made all enquiries with still no luck exept to find that 3 fellows there had seen them in our letter rack. I am very wild about it as it is a loss of money as well as good work.

On Sunday I did the longest cross country flight I have ever done as I flew about 90 miles to Harlaxton & back in all about 180 miles taking 3 hours 15 minutes to cover the journey. I twice passed over home but did not stay to show them how I could fly as I only had a bare margin of a few pints of petrol to see me through the journey & there was none of you to see. Home looks very cosy from the air with all the trees growing up and nestling around. I never missed my way at all although I was over the edge of my map after Long Eaton.

With love from Oliver.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
R S is " Reserve Squadron".
4 May 2014 at 10:09
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter 21 - I was a bit surprised you bet but I have had my first trip over hunland.

By
A note from the Editors: We are missing a letter which is a pain, as things have moved on a pace since Olivers last letter! He has now been posted back to 70 Squadron and straight back in the saddle, with a description of his first eventful flight over enemy lines - 'Hunland'. It has been just 3 weeks since his crash. Franked 8 SP 17 O.A.S. Mrs Chas. E. Pearson, Hillcrest, Lowdham, Notts. Letter No. 15 II 70 Squadron RFC BEF France 6.9.17 Letter no 15 Dear Mother & Dad. I have just received two letters from you dated 2 Sept so that they have only taken 4 days to come. I am again with my Squadron. I played my last card and won. I slung my weight about till I must have made everyone fed up with me & so they got a hustle on. I came back yesterday morning & flew in the afternoon for about an hour & a half. This morning at 5.30 I was wakened up to say I was for patrol at six. I was a bit surprised you bet but I have had my first trip over hunland. It was very cloudy
Post a Comment
Read more

Welcome to 'An Airmans Lost Letters' 1915-1917

By
These long forgotten letters penned by a young R.F.C. pilot, 2nd Lt. Oliver Charles Pearson to his Mother during the Great War, were discovered and liberated from a skip filled with the remnants of a roof clearance at a property in Southampton, UK during the mid 1990s. Within the past year they were rediscovered (again) having sat in a box in a loft for the last 10-15 years and were kindly passed to this sites authors, both of whom share an interest in social and military history from this period. Any links the letters had with the Pearson family have been long forgotten. We, the creators of this website, believe these documents are important social records of great interest to many, truly deserving preservation and a wider audience. When the letters came into our possession, via the nephew of the original finder, we deliberated over what we should do with them - perhaps donate them to a war museum? Oliver Pearsons old school? or return them to any living descendants, should we di
5 comments
Read more

Lt Werner Voss claims his 44th victim

By
On the 10th of September 1917 two young pilots met over the Flanders battlefield. One was nineteen year old 2nd Lt Oliver Charles Pearson, the other was  twenty year old Leutnant Werner Voss , flying a prototype of one of the brand new Fokker Triplanes ... Oliver had left the 70 Sqn airfield near Poperinge at 4.45pm in Sopwith Camel B3787, on an offensive patrol to nearby Houlhulst Wood.  Lt Werner Voss was by then commander of 10 Jasta. One of Germanys top fighter aces, he was a natural pilot and aggressive fighter with 43 kills to his credit so far, second only to his friend and competitor Baron Manfred Von Richthofen.  Werner had been chosen to test fly Anthony Fokkers prototype only a few days before at the end of August. With aero engines in short supply his was fitted with a 110 hp  LeRhône engine  engine from a captured RFC Nieuport 17 fighter. Voss with Anthony Fokker Voss and his Triplane with his distinctive Japanese kite face painted on the Nacelle.
3 comments
Read more