Page 36 - Leonard Tebbenham

th
Friday 12 October 1945
c/o Meteorological Office,

AHQ Accra,

Gold Coast,

West Africa

My darling Blodwen,

We took off from Takoradi at 6am today and arrived here at 7am. Takoradi was a grand place,
warm but quite breezy. The BOAC Hotel was on a hill overlooking the sea and a steady sea
breeze kept the place quite cool all night. I had my first real sleep there – a good six hours.

We had a grand meal of soup, fish, pork cabbage & spuds, then egg custard with peaches. We
then chatted and enjoyed the cool breeze and got some good gen from the General who is G.O.C.
for the whole of W. Africa. Just before supper Charlie and I had a long walk on the sands, which
were just like any other any other beach, except for the surf and the tropical grasses growing right
down to the sands.

We were met here by Sqn Ldr Price – deputy chief Met Officer. Mr Smith the chief is in Nigeria and
comes back in a day or two when we shall know our posting. We spent today getting our uniform
together. We went to the officer’s shop in Accra and bought material to be made up by the native
tailor. We purchased enough to make three shirts, two short and one long trousers for 22/- and it
will cost about 30/- to make it up. I will have drawn £10 from the bank at home by tomorrow to buy
a watch and a leather case. I have bought a pair of brown ‘Walkezie’ shoes for 22/-.

Tomorrow we hope to get mosquito boots from stores, they are like medium boots made of suede
and are free issue. We have got to take extra quinine because we were not told that we should
have taken mepercrine for the last three weeks and it was only two weeks ago we first heard of
the trip! It rained today from 12:00 to 17:00 hours, a line squall and a thunderstorm. It was wet
enough to wear macs. Nobody seems to wear a Burma hat here, but they did in Freetown and
Bathurst. We have a mosquito net over our bed and also all buildings are surrounded by more
gauze to keep them out.

God bless you, take care of yourself. I hope the job is nice for you. All my love.

Yours for ever, Len xxxx