20 Jul 1942, John Charter's wartime journal

The first parcel that Yvonne Ho and Herbert sent us contained 5 different 12 oz tins of jam, 4 Indian corns on the cob (fresh), and two tooth brushes! We gave one corn to Maudie Min., one to the chaps in the room and the other two we took over to Kitty and Billy Hacket and shared them with them. We made a little cheese sauce and they were delicious! The tooth brushes were a real brainwave, for we had been making do with some ancient pre-war brushes and were badly in need of new ones. And jam - well! The more the better. The second parcel contained: one whole 5 lb tin of Apricot jam! 3 tins of soya beans in soy sauce, which made a lovely sauce to eat with our monotonous rice, and two cakes of lovely lifebuoy soap - so clean and refreshing in this sweltering weather.

And now, bless them, they have sent us a third parcel. They must have remembered my birthday, for in the parcel was a coffee tin containing a beautiful home-made cake. Yvonne must have baked it in the tin, which was a very bright idea. It was a sweet thought too. Actually, it smelt so good that we couldn’t wait the 5 days to my birthday on the 22nd, so everyone in the room had a slice and we took up a piece to Maudie. In the parcel also were two 12 oz tins of plum jam and an enormous tin of tomato catsup - simply delicious. It was almost a 7 lb tin! (I hate to think what it cost). We gave the Bidwells, the Fortescues, and Isa and her father a bottle for each pair and we took one to Minnie and even then we had three bottles left for ourselves. These sauces make all the difference to our rice meals, and I believe tomatoes have a lot of vitamins and food value. We managed to get in a message by Bob Kendall, (before the Americans left) thanking Y for her first parcel. I don’t know if the message ever got through, I hope so.