June 27. 1943.

Dear Mother:

It has suddenly become summer here and most of the last week has been very nice. It is a pity there isn’t a decent beach nearby to make the best of it. There is a place to go swimming about one mile away but you have to walk out about 300 yds to get up to your knees in water. We have walked down a couple of times and I think the benefit of the swim would be lost on the trek home as there are innumerable fences to climb over. We went for quite a long walk this afternoon to a place called Miscouche. We expected a town but there were only two small stores, both closed, so we couldn’t even get a much needed ‘coke’.

Yesterday I went on a triangle trip around the Magdalen Islands. I was off course quite a bit on the way up but managed to fix it up pretty well by taking bearings on any landmarks I could see. For the last 50 miles coming back I made no alterations of course and on ETA which was calculated at that distance away I was only ½ mile from the airport. A successful ending anyway.

On the next rip we are supposed to use the sextant in the air. We have been practising this on the ground. The actual operation of the instrument is not bad but the arithmetical work is profound, requiring two or three widely separated sections of two different volumes for each reading.

Dave Bone came in on the train last night for the new course. He left our office at least two months after I and now he is only two weeks behind. He took SFTS at McLeod but I saw him at ITS and again at EFTS.

It will likely become too warm for a uniform on Sunday so I would like you to send the following by express: my Grenfell cloth wind breaker, my greyish suit, one or two shirts (one white if I have any and both ‘collar attached’, a couple of ties (one to be a sort of reddish foulard that I have. It might be made by Currie and is the only one I like.) You can wrap the bundle quite small if you like because I can get it pressed on arrival. In the middle of it you might be able to put my camera but don’t bother with any accessories or the case and don’t indicate its there unless you have to.

This may arrive just before your birthday so I wish you many happy returns of the day, Mother.

With love from
Tony

[Note: Transcription provided by collection donor.]