Source 2: Douglas's last letter home, 8 December 1916

Douglas’s last letter to his mother tells of ‘a very successful Sale of Work’ in aid of wounded soldiers. He was killed two days later when flying over the Thames Estuary. His funeral was held on 13 December and he was buried at Eastminster Cemetery, Sheerness in Kent.

You can print the image and transcript below as a Word document (Rich Text Format, 1.55MB, new window).

View the timeline for an outline of John Douglas Hume's life.

Transcript

R. N. Seaplane Base
Westgate-on-Sea
Kent
8th Dec[ember] 1916

Dear Mother

Please find enclosed cheque for £3 towards
Sale of Work. Hope you got on well. We had a
very successful sale. £178-17-0 so far and a few
pounds to come in yet. The Doll's House (for which I
had 12 tickets) brought us in about £45 & went to a
little girl from Margate who was almost small enough
to get inside. I won the prize for Gentleman's shooting
competition which was pretty good considering that [I]
was up against Army & Navy Instructors.
I had six bulls out of six shots at 25 y[ar]ds. All inside a
1 in[ch] circle & so had the Army Instructor Sergeant-Major
but I made mine on my first target & he had
to take two targets to make his.

Glad to hear of Reggie's appointment.
Much love
Douglas

(National Records of Scotland reference: GD486/133)