1918 letter from RAF pilot at Long Branch Ont. to pilot Clyde Tite

$55.00 CAD

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Three-page letter from pilot at Long Branch (Ont.) on RAF letterhead to his friend Clyde Tite #76289 R.F.C. stationed at Camp Borden (Ont.). (Other letters to him also on sale.)

Mention of "inoculation" (Spanish Flu?).

Armistice was declared 5 days before this letter was written.

Long Branch Nov 16 1918
 
Hello Clyde,
…I am feeling pretty good and am now on treatment I expect to get out in 3 weeks and will unless I give them another positive slide which isn’t very likely. I am just laying around doing nothing on account of rheumatism. It is hell…I suppose there isn’t much doing in camp now…Do you think we will get our tickets soon? Well Clyde I have to go and get a G.C. inoculation so must close…
Lu

 

3 separate sheets, each with ‘RAF Per Ardua ad Astra’ letterhead.

 Folded horizontally.

 

The Royal Flying Corps Canada was established by the RFC in 1917 to train aircrew in Canada. Air Stations were established in southern Ontario at the following locations:

  • Camp Borden 1917–1918
  • Armour Heights Field 1917–1918 (pilot training, School of Special Flying to train instructors)
  • Leaside Aerodrome 1917–1918 (Artillery Cooperation School)
  • Long Branch Aerodrome 1917–1918
  • Curtiss School of Aviation (flying-boat station with temporary wooden hangar on the beach at Hanlan's Point on Toronto Island 1915–1918; main school, airstrip and metal hangar facilities at Long Branch)
  • Camp Rathbun, Deseronto 1917–1918 (pilot training)
  • Camp Mohawk (now Tyendinaga (Mohawk) Airport) 1917–1918 – located at the Tyendinaga Indian Reserve (now Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory) near Belleville 1917–1918 (pilot training)
  • Hamilton (Armament School) 1917–1918
  • Beamsville Camp (School of Aerial Fighting) 1917–1918

 

Alfred Clyde Tite #76289

Clyde, who lived in Edmonton, first enlisted on 19th September 1914, then enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps on the 19th June 1917 in Vancouver. His enlistment was a ‘Short Service’ i.e. for the duration of the War. On 1st April 1918 he was transferred to the R.A.F. On 1st April 1919, he was transferred to 44th Wing R.A.F. (Camp Borden). He was discharged on the 6th January 1919.

He was unmarried, 25 years old, and listed his trade as carpenter.

(British RAF Service Records)