Saturday September 20 8.05 pm [1941]
# SCARY BOMBING AT NIGHT
# ANOTHER NARROW ESCAPE FOR RON

The “half” is vaguely comforting somehow. Bulgaria announces her readiness to join Axis in full. I wonder if Turkey is to be trusted?

Ron had another narrow escape. In turning a plane on the ground the tail hit a bomb on the nose. Fortunately it was not one that went off on impact. The directing groundsman was very careless. So near to death we all dwell in these troubled times. Eff got me a box of Quaker Corn Flakes on Thurs from Cannings.

Sweet Nitre – a popular remedy. The 1946 edition of Stedman’s Medical Dictionary gives the following definition: ‘Spiritus aetheris nitrosi: an alcoholic solution of ethyl nitrate, aldehyde and other substances. A sedative, diuretic and diaphoretic in doses of 20–30 min.’ (‘A minum is 1/60th of a fluid drachm: practically speaking, a drop.’)

‘a/c 1’ refers to the RAF rank of Aircraftman First Class.

John Kenneth (‘Ken’) Smith was May’s cousin Amy’s son (see 16 Dec. 1940).

Mr Thomas Herbert Faulkner was previously mentioned on 2 Apr. 1941.

The Nipper Annual was based on a comic strip which appeared in the Daily Mail newspaper.

Seathorne was an area of Skegness, on the northern edge, nearest to Ingoldmells, not far from ‘HMS Royal Arthur’.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, American author and doctor, described ‘Elsie Venner – A Romance of Destiny’ (published 1861) as one of his ‘medicated novels’.

The Skegness Standard was the weekly newspaper (Lincolnshire Standard Group).

Miss Norah Canning’s stores and tea-shop was near ‘The Pullover’.

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