More to come!

I am a little late with the last few letters to go on this blog as our modem was no longer linking us into the net and Virgin has just replaced it with an up-to-date one. I have one a couple of letters to post from the Blitz and from the 1950s, Annie's letter about going to see Westminster Abbey, where her son was appointed to officiate at the Queen's coronation as a gold staff officer. BC

Letter to Molly Platt from Tom Critchley 30.4.1941

30.4.41

My Dear Molly,

If you are out to criticise the spelling of a Critchley you have a very easy task. If you are a true Critchley or even only half a one (pedantically 'an one' usage says a one) you can't spell for nuts. I don't know anything about the Platts, but the Critchleys are quite unable to spell. All they can do is give words their correct meaning.

You say the Oxford dictionary may not apply to Scotland since it is English. I would be glad to know what language they speak in Scotland, and what the Scots speak when they come to England. It is a problem I have often pondered, because there is undoubtedly some resemblance to English in some of the words.

As for 'sort', it seems to have assorted meanings, & the Scots resort to it on all sorts of occasions. Ever since the sort, or union, they have tried to dis-sort (unfix or break away) themselves from the sort with the English. Not that we the English sought sort with them, they aren't the sort one would chosse to sort with, or consort with; no on our part it was quite unsought. What can't be sorted must be endured. One thing I must admit, the scenery makes some asorts (amends) for the people.

Have I got into a sort (fix)? or have I got into the way of using sort correctly? No doubt you can sort it out.

We have had very little sunshine, a short spasm now & then just to show there is a sun, but it still keeps cold, too cold for the time of the year.

We, like you are outside the balloon barrage, the nearest is 2 or 3 miles away, the works too is outside but from there, we can count several hundred on a clear day, mainly the ones around East London & the Thames. Did we tell you of the time we saw an airman come down by parachute & drop onto a balloon? They had to lower the balloon to get him off, It was during the time of the big fights by day over London.

During the Blitz, which we so fortunatlely missed by staying in St Helen's until Sunday, two people I know had rather trying experiences. A man in our office had a land mine in his garden & it didn't go off. He said it was over 10 ft long & nearly 3 ft in diameter, & dropped into soft earth and stuck there until the RE's came and took off the detonators. The son of a neighbour of ours came to see us on Sunday. He said he was gazing out of a window at his flat when he saw the parachute fall, He chucked himself flat & says it seemed quite  time before there was a vivid yellow flash & then he got a brick on his head & felt glass going through his clothes.

During the last war 2 Zepps were brought down near us & the crews were buried at Potters' Bar. On our way home from St Helens, we passed the cemetery & noticed a crowd of people there. The previous night Jerry had dropped a land mine in this cemetery & scattered graves all over the place.

I hope you have a pleasant time when you visit your friends, though I cannot imagine anyone enjoying themselves amongst such people (Grandpa is, of course only teasing Molly about her friends BC).

Love from Auntie Annie and Uncle Tom

Tom Critchley to Mary Platt 30.4.41

30.4.41

My Dear Mary & Harry

We are tonight indulging in an orgy of letter writing; this is the third, first to the Palestine exile, then the soldier son faithfully serving his King and country on holiday in Keswick & now your turn. Badly expressed I fear!!

Thank you very much for the plants which arrived in good condition and are now split up and planted. I fear they won't get their accustomed water in our garden, the big trees suck up what water is available.

Those land mines near us made a shocking mess, about the worst I have seen; we feel thankful we missed that lot.

Tom left at 5.30am, got to St Helens at 12.20, left there at 2.30 & got to Keswick about 7.00 296 miles, so it wasn't bad going for the old car. He is staying overnight at St Helens on the way back. I am wondering what Phoebe thought about his Margaret or Maggie as Seth calls her (Ronald's name for her is Gorgeous). She is, with strangers, rather quiet, but quite a nice girl.

Today we have had a practice for the invasion. All around our place here, the Coldstream Guards have been occupying the roads and hedges. I got a shock at mid-day to find a bloke with a bren gun pointed at me near the end of our road & tonight another bloke did pretend rapid rifle fire as I came along.

It was surprising how well they hid themselves & kept lorries and such things camouflaged & under cover. They even had leaves on thier tin hats.

Now I'll reply to that daughter of yours. I cannot think what sins you can possibly have committed to have a Scot inflicted on you.

Perhaps it's your husband's fault and not yours. Anyhow, it must be a trial, hard to bear.

Love to you both from us both,

Tom

Tom Critchley to Molly Platt 21.4.41

37 Lonsdale Drive,

Enfield,

Mddx

21.4.41

My dear Molly,

The enclosure is not a packet of fags (I beg your pedantic parden – cigarettes) but the long promised piece of aeroplane. As you can see the piece shows bullet marks which helped to disintegrate the machine.

I am wondering if our local rates include entertainment tax during air raids, for if they do I want a rebate on mine, as we missed two really good do's while we were away. On the Wednesday night they only dropped common high explosives & smashed a few houses. Some folks had a lucky escape by doing our stunt of hiding under the table. The real bad do here was on Saturday when two land mines dropped at the back. The next door people were under the stairs with the wind up after the Wednesday raid. They say the house shook to the foundations. The people 2 or 3 doors away have a married son whose place was smashed up & the son & wife carted off the hospital. There were so many taken to this hospital they had to wait 4 hours before they could be treated.

When we got home on Sunday afternoon we found our back door & cupboards wide open; the fire places were full of soot so Jerry has really done us a good turn in sweeping the chimneys for us. We left windows open & chinks of soot seem to have drifted in, even the bath had soot in it.

As we as were coming home we saw the first signs at Potters Bar & then the shops near us – three were all minus windows so we began to wonder if we should see our house fit for heroes to live in & were quite relieved to find no damage.

Now to much more serious matters. In your youthful ignorance & partly-educated conceit you had the audacity to challenge, nay more, to laugh at, in scorn & derision, the use of the verb "want". The cake wants eating! Well for your education (no charge for private tuition) the Oxford dictionary shows that not only are you mistaken but also that a Scotch education has warped your concept of the English language.

To want may mean to require – as used by L Carroll "your hair wants cutting said the Hatter". The cakes wants eating " said the Critchleys! Please, oh please, don't reply to this until you have read all about in in that standard English work the "Oxford dictionary. What they say in Scotland is no argument, it's the noble English language we are dealing with & not the mongrel stuff debased by our northern neighbours.

On the other hand, but no effort of imagination, can one find the least excuse for using the word "sort" as used in Scotland. There one has a word missed by the uneducated & for which there is no justification. It isn't English & it isn't Gaelic, it's just bad slang & that's that!

What sort of a journey did you have? When we set out in sunshine on Sunday morning we were congratulating ourselves on waiting until the Sunday, but by the time we got to Rugby, we weren't so pleased. We ran into rain, then thunder which sounded just like a Blitz, then it turned to hail, very heavy indeed, which stuck on the windscreen. The sides of the roads became "burns" & for about 80 minutes things were very unpleasant.

The storm seemed to travel with us, but by doing 60 for a while we won during the last lap and arrived home just ahead of it. The tail end broke just as we got here.

Tom had to work yesterday, so we rang  the Robinsons to see if he & they were all right & then I rang up the works.

They had two landmines near but no damage. One of the landmines is still suspended on some railings, so somebody has a nice job to get it down.

Tom says he has been about London after every Blitz, but never but had never seen the damage there was after Wednesday night's attempt.

I wish you had come back with us. You could have cut the grass for us – it wants cutting – & I want an assistant so that I can stand by & criticise.

Give our love to your mother and father & keep a bit back for yourself.

Uncle Tom

Tom Critchley's holiday from letter writing

It looks as if Tom and Annie Critchley, met up with Mary, Harry and Molly Platt at St Helen's, Lancashire, where Tom and Mary were born and brought up. So there is a slight gap in the letters. BC

Tom Critchley to his niece Molly Platt March 27th 1941

37 Lonsdale Drive,

27.3.41

My dear Molly,

We wish you many happy returns of your Birthday & by the time the next one comes round we hope Hitler & his gang will have ceased to trouble you. Perhaps by that time he will be disputing supremacey in his natural home, with the present ruler – old nick.

Isn't it nice to have a few peaceful nights after violently disturbed ones?

You have a funny cousin in Tom, he is at present trying to get in the Air Force as a fighter pilot, he thinks it a good thing to shoot down German bombers – so do I.

I don't think they will take him as he has to wear glasses for seeing a distance, but I can quite understand him wanting to have a smack back, since he saw so much of the bombing of London last year. Night after night he was in the thick of it, with bombs dropping all around the hospital in which he was, until finally the hospital was destroyed. One night he counted 40 in an hour.

We haven't had a letter from Ronald for a month, perhaps father neptune is reading them – I hope he enjoys them. We haven't forgotten you like his letters & still intend sending some of them for you to read. We lent them to a friend who in turn passed them on (most foolishly) to a number of other people. After over 6 months we have at last got back most of them & since they are all mixed up, we are sorting them out & copying them. A long job!

I hope you will be able to get something amusing with the enclosed P.O.

Love from Auntie Annie and Uncle Tom.

Letter from Tom Critchley to Mary Platt 23.3.41

37 Lonsdale Drive

23.3.41

My dear Mary,

Mea culpa! If Annie didn't object I would pour ashes over my head. I did receive the P.O. & I did forget to thank you for it & Harry did post it in Dumfries for that was the post mark on the letter. I'll bet he has done things for which he hasn't got the blame so now that's one off the score.

I am glad you didn't get too scared over the Clydeside raids. You, like we, are out of the danger zone, that is real great danger. Where there are lots of open spaces around the danger is not nearly so bad as in enclosed property, especially with fire bombs, as witness those we have had all around us and the little damage done. The worst one near us, when the roof was on fire, the inhabtiants were sat in front of the fireplace & didn't know their house was ablaze until neighbours told them.

We had your lot of raiders over our way on their journey to you & gave them a good pasting, then, when they went to Hull on Tuesday, they came here again & some didn't get to Hull, but left their loads in East Barnet, once again near where we used to live. The next night , Wednesday, was our real turn, & a good & proper old fashioned do it was too, Fortunately they left Enfield alone and concentrated on East London. There was one big fire we could see at Edmonton & at one time I thought Brimsdown was involved, but they didn't get quite as far as that. Tom was out, as usual & rang up to say it was too hot to come home as a piece of shrapnel had already hit his car. We went to bed but only slept by fits and starts. It needs a sound sleeper not to rouse when the house rocks & it feels as if somebody was trying to push you out of bed. Besides we are not as used to it as we were & somehow don't take it as calmly. It now seems astounding how we managed during all those 15 weeks without a night off & averaging 10 – 13 hours a night. It's surprising what you can get used to. I have kept a record of raids, someday I must show you & point out the records 17.5 hours in one day out of 24 & the days the raids started I was coming home from work & the same raid was still on when we had our breakfast next morning.

Tom hasn't had his photo taken in uniform. He isn't at all proud of it, the first thing he does when he gets home is to change into civvies. He is very restless young man & has now come to the conclusion that his work in the Dental Corps is not enough & he thinks he ought to do more. He wondered about volunteering as an ARP worker in the East End, but being in the army I don't see how that could be wangled. Today he has the bright idea of volunteerring for the air force as a fighter pilot. He seems to think it would be humane to shoot bombers down in flames. The only objection is his eyes; he wonders if they take fighter pilots with glasses. He doesn't want a bomber, I think for that one needs to be a bit cold blooded, but I can understand anybody being willing & eager to have a go at Jerry  bombers. They are a lot of dirty tykes.

You are lucky to get 2 glasses of tongue, neither glasses nor tins are available here, but we have quite a nice stock of iron rations for use if an emergency should arise.

We haven't had a letter from Ronald for about a month; I suppose some must be lying at the bottom of the sea, but as Tom had the cable, we know Ronald is all right, so aren't worried. Neverthless letters are always welcome.

We still haven't yet made up our minds about St Helens, it's full moon then & anything might happen; we think they are safer than we, but there is always a sort of feeling that one would rather be bombed in one's own home. Like a place I pass everyday where they sell seats for dug outs, advertise "Be bombed in Comfort"

Now, we both wish you many returns of the 26th may they be much better than this one.

Love from us both Tom

P S Do you fill all your kettles at night? It's a wise precaution twice we have been without water