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Letter 15 - Oliver falls on his feet, a posting to 70 Squadron!

A note from the Editors:

Oliver finally gets posted! He moves to 70 Squadron, based in Liettres, the first R.F.C. squadron to be issued with the new Sopwith Camel, only a month or so before.


Franked 18 AUG 17
Mrs Chas. E. Pearson,
Hillcrest,
Lowdham,
Notts.

70 Squadron : BEF : France
18.8.17
Letter No 8

My Dear Mother
I shifted here yesterday I am jolly glad to at last have the chance of some flying. I kicked up a row at the Pool because I was there so long & found that headquarters had lost my name!! & yet they say there’s a war on. The day befor I left we had a hun plane over the town. He was an awful height up at least 15,000 & our Archie made pretty patterns in the sky with smoke puffs but didn’t even make the hun turn. Our fellows went up but were years late & so I expect he got home again safely. He did no damage & it was thought he had lost his way as huns don’t generally come so far back without laying eggs.

As far as I can see I have fairly fallen on my feet here. There are two chaps who were also at Ternhill here. The Major is reported by all to be one of the best. The Mess is good so far as I have seen. The other fellows are good sorts as far as one can judge at first sight. The Aerodrome is good but of course small & very crowded. We live in tents which is a drawback but one cannot have all jam. This is I suppose one of the two best scout squadrons in France & we fly what I was flying befor I left England (Poor old Censor that phrase has diddled him) I am hoping to get a flip to-day & shall get over the lines during next week I hope. It’s just fine to have got at last to the haven of ones ambition for the past two years & I have been in Khaki now nearly two years next 26th Sept I shall have been. It’s jolly pretty country round here with funny little churches marred by two great slag heaps where coal pits are & by the signs of the war troops etc I mean of course not shell holes or the like.
With very much love to all from Oliver xxx

Jim

Thanks very much for your letter. You made a good find with the elephant. I have sent home various bug messages for you & keep my eyes open for catapillara of the swallow tails & this is a likely enough spot give me a list of their food plants. I am just as pleased as punch getting here just the squadron I wanted to get to. I saw a migration of swifts last week several hundred going south about 5 in the evening.

Aunt Mary has written a piffling letter without offering me anything only & simply to get an answer back & that I guess she will have to wait for. Thank Betty very much indeed for her socks & tell her I can do with any amount of that sort. They are just fine & come high up my legs nearly to my knees. I have got a beautiful pair of flying boots coming right up to my thighs made of sheep skin & the finest Colt revolver you could wish for. Well cheerio & best of all good luck for your holiday.

Oliver.

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Welcome to 'An Airmans Lost Letters' 1915-1917

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

We can finally see the face behind the letters

Since we started this blog in 2008, we feel we have got to know Oliver quite well, from the letters home we have shared here. One thing that frustrated us though was not having an image of Oliver. We really wanted to put a face to the young man. The Great War saw an explosion in photography, with every proud soldier and sailor having a studio photograph taken of themselves in uniform, and made into multiple postcards to send on to family and friends. And less common than the studio portraiture, not helped by strict censorship in force, were pocket cameras and amateur photographers. Oliver himself mentions his camera several times ... "Talking of photographs I am sorry you will have no studio ones of me because while I was at home and at Birmingham I had no clothes fit to wear and while at the C.F.S. had no opportunity but I do promise that I will have some done here when and as soon as it is possible for me. It should not be difficult. Keep all the letters from me that are int