Letters from Iraq, 1946-7

George Horrobin writing a letter in his camp in Iraq
Reproduced by kind permission of Tricia Leonard
A box of all the letters George Horrobin sent back to his family
Reproduced by kind permission of Tricia Leonard
A selection of letters by George Horrobin. Click to see fullsize.
Reproduced by kind permission of Tricia Leonard

George Horrobin served as a wireless mechanic in Squadron 226 of the RAF. He wrote letters back to his family from numerous overseas posts, including  Habbania in Iraq.

His letters cover everyday life in the camp, and he included drawings and sketches of the camp as well.

Cattle and the captain

Here he is writing about being shepherded onto a landing-craft at Port Said in March, 1946:

“We were marched onto a landing craft affair – the same one that brought us to 1 camp. There was an army captain packing us in and he was shouting that he wanted to get 700 of us on the thing.

“We weren’t in the mood to be pushed around and we started our ‘cattle’ tactics again. We mooed and baa’d and made various other animal noises. We were packed so tight that I lost hold of my kit bag, but there was no room for it to fall down!  As soon as we rushed off someone shouted ‘3 cheers for the captain’ and we gave him 3 hearty boo’s! We shouted various comments as the distance between him and us broadened.”

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Comments about this page

  • George Horrobin, my first woodwork teacher at Fawcett school, bottom of Trafalgar Street. I liked him.

    By Patrick Kite (22/11/2007)
  • It was nice to see that George Horrobin is still remembered after all these years. He was also my first woodwork teacher at Fawcett School. I am now sixty-five and I was just thirteen when he first taught me.

    By John Wignall (30/11/2007)
  • George Horrobin was also one of my woodwork teachers at Fawcett School. He was quiet and very kind man, unlike the ‘senior’ woodwork teacher, who’s name I can’t remember. I vividly remember when the more senior teacher came over and destroyed my piece of woodwork – I suppose because he could and because he wanted to assert some sort of authority. Mr Horrobin, without saying a word, came over and remade the project that had been broken, from scratch, up to the point that  it had been destroyed. Without his help, I can’t imagine what I would have done. 

    He was one of the few, really kind teachers at Fawcett, in the late 50s and early 60s. 

    By Philip Burnard (02/05/2015)
  • I can’t believe I found George on Google. I was a trainee teacher in his care at an awful school Longhill, above Brighton in 1980. He was a very lovely man and teacher from whom I learned a lot. I think he had strong Christian beliefs. I remember him leaving an assembly where Lennon ‘s Imagine There is no Heaven was played after Lennon died. I had huge respect for him.

    By C Matterson (20/09/2020)

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