Letter From Bob Masters 1941

17th Sept 1941.

Dear Mother,

Nothing has happened since I returned from my leave in London which is now over a week ago. I had a parcel form Havelock North a few days ago; all it had inside was a card to say it was from Havelock North, so you had better thank Havelock for me. It contained biscuits chocolates etc. and I was very pleased to get it. In your last letter you wanted to know about a bill from Grieves Ltd. Grieves are the people who I got my uniform from and I get most of my clothing from them. I run an account with them and I filled in a form for them giving my home address, bank etc. It was all a mistake their sending the bill to you, especially, as at present I am in credit with them. I told you about losing my last Greatcoat. Well I never got it back and I am at present having another one made by Grieves. Don’t think that I am overdrawn at the bank. at present I have about 50 pounds in the bank so that is all right. I went into my bank when I was in London last week and found out that I don’t have to pay income tax over here now. This was all done with the bank and used to come to about 4 pounds a month so it means quite a lot to me. As I said before it is quite easy to

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write out a cheque but I watch my bank balance fairly carefully. I haven’t bought a car yet as I haven’t seen any thing suitable with out having to pay too much for it. So I am still waiting for one.

When I was in London last week I called into N.Z. House to see if there was any mail and all the latest N.Z. papers & magazines. I ordered the N.Z. news while I was there. It only costs 2/- a year for us and is published fortnightly and contains all the latest cable news from NZ. as well as news of all the N.Z. chaps over here. It’s only a small paper with a few pages in it but proves very interesting to us. This letter writing racket is beginning to get me down as there are so many letters I should write but never do. Everytime I do get a chance and sit down to write someone is sure to come along and want you to go out to the pictures or something. I owe letters to Margaret, Don, Trevor, Wilf, Peter, Herbert, Aunt Alma, Aunt Edie and many others in N.Z. as well as many others over this side. So goodness knows if I shall ever get up to date with my correspondence. You might tell the above people if you see them that I shall write when I can. Both Herbert & Peter have written to me since they have been at Levin. I must write to Fred the next time I get a chance.

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I am already looking forward to seeing Herbert, Peter, and the other boys that I know over here. I was wondering whether they would do their training in N.Z. or Canada. It does seem pretty hard on Fred having to stay at home while everyone else is going overseas. We haven’t carried out anymore sweeps or operations for sometime now. So everyone in the squadron is getting restless with waiting for some action.

Hope old Stumpy is still as active as ever. Hope you are keeping better now. Do look after yourself and don’t worry to [too] much. Hope everything is going well at home. Will be writing to Fred soon. Good wishes and best of luck to all at home.

Love to all.

Bob.

No. 7 letter

P/O R.S MASTERS,
R.N.Z.A.F.
C/O N.Z. HOUSE,
418 STRAND,
LONDON W.C.2.