Miss Chisholm and those magnificent men

What follows is is a bittersweet tale. I have written about my great-uncle Jack, a WWI fighter pilot, in my recent blip from Ypres. He lost his life in 1917, when his Nieuport Scout plane shed its wing, and is buried at Cerisy-Gailly military cemetery in the the Somme.

Today I am celebrating his brief life with a souvenir that was bequeathed to my brother Ben by Jack's sweetheart, 'Miss Chisholm'. In the 1970s we ended up living along the road from her in a remote part of the West Highlands of Scotland. My mother invited her to tea so that she could share her memories with us, in particular Ben, who was very interested in Jack.

Miss Chisholm (Mairi), was working in a Belgian army hospital during the war, and Jack, who flew out from Oostende or Dunkerque, would regularly fly over her hospital and parachute down small items such as boxes of chocolates for her, (they can't have been full sized forces parachutes, surely?) but they would get squashed on landing. So Jack obtained a small wooden doll, and parachuted it down to her with this letter, which captures the spirit (and the slang) of the age.

Some bomb what! Hope it arrives intact and without snaffling anyone on the way down. I am a little uncertain of the performance of the parachute. Sorry I cannot loop this bus . Unfortunately they will not go over but side slip on the top of the loop and then go into a spinning nose dive very often. Am awfully sorry we could not get over yesterday but it was too confoundedly fine. Hope to come next dud day.
Cheery oh!
Yours, Jack J Petre

Miss Chisholm remained unmarried all her life, and the package of doll and letter was delivered to my mother's house upon her death in 1983.

Update: my sister Tanya, aka TMLHereandThere, has informed me that a book has been written about Miss Chisholm and her friend, called Elsie and Mairi go to war: two extraordinary women on the Western Front, by Diane Atkinson. Mairi Chisholm was a nurse in many of the theatres of war, and received seventeen medals for her work. There is a photograph of the family portrait of Jack Petre in the book, too. Do see Tanya's comment, below , for further information.