Sept. 25th, 1941

Dear Mom,

I wonder if you can tell me the exact relationship between John Aird and us. You see I was talking to a Mrs. McDougall who comes from Toronto and she happened to mention that she knew John Aird's sister rather well and I of course was immensely interested at once. I told her that we were distantly related to the Airds. And from what she tells me my cousin Barbara Canuthers (Sir John's granddaughter) is a sergeant in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and she is stationed in the Isle of Man. One of the Sisters in the hospital knows her very well but when I went to see her, she could only give me a forwarding address. She does not know where Barbara is now. But I can tell you it gave me a funny feeling to discover a relation I never knew I had. I am just wondering whether I should get in touch with her or not. I wish I knew what the relationship was between us. But wasn't it funny how I came to know of her? What do you think about it all? I have always had an idea that we weren't very proud of our relationship to him. Can you help me?

Well I am still here in hospital and the trouble is that I have no idea when I am going to get out. The wound is still discharging and won't heal at all. I have had 20 X-rays but they have failed to show anything at all. The trouble is the doctors don't seem to worry about it. I have only been looked at once since I came in here again 20 days ago. Everything is so slow and I am getting so impatient. I want to get out of here. So I have made up my mind, I am going to tackle him this morning when he comes round. As soon as I get out of here, I am going to demand 14 days leave and then I am going to have a heart to heart talk with the major.

When I get my leave I am going to go down to Brighton for one or two days and look up all my old friends, including Aunt Ruby. And I think I'll look up Alf's sister at the same time. I have been promising for a long time now that I will, so I guess I had better do so. Mr. and Mrs. Lees are getting on. I haven't heard of them for months. Bobby is now a Sgt. armourer I hear.

You ask what people eat over here in England for tea...well first of all, we had lovely tea. Two kinds of tea - India and China, sugar and milk in beautiful china cups. Then we had about seven kinds of sandwiches - very small and dainty. Tomatoes, lettuce and meat pastes. Then we had cakes, tea cakes and little pastries - very plain of course, and a very plain light cake. Does that satisfy your curiosity?

Yes, Beth Henderson wrote and told me all about her mother dying. I know she will miss her for she loved her mother very much.

What are these jobs that you keep saying that Dad has done? You must remember that I have had no June or July mail yet. This that I am answering is dated Aug. 17th and Aug. 23rd. The letters that should have come before are being held up somewhere. I wish I knew where it is so I could write and get it. I hate to lose mail. I have had rather a lot of English mail lately so I have been busy answering it. My Canadian mail has started to come in again too.

I wrote another poem: two more which I am enclosing. I guess that is all for now.

Love as ever to all,

Jim