Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Title
Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Description
Writes to let her know new address in Stratford-upon-Avon. Writes they are first tenants in a chaotic hotel new establishment. Complains that station is only open as receiving wing for aircrew and they will not be there long. Describes daily training activities location, accommodation and facilities. Discusses Christmas arrangements with no leave pending.
Creator
Date
1940-12-14
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page handwritten letter
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EValentineJRMValentineUM401214
Transcription
1251404 AC 2 Valentine John
5/2 Flight, 9 R.W.
R.A.F.
Stratford Hotel
Stratford-on-Avon
Saturday 14/12/40.
My Dearest Ursula,
This may turn out to be only a few short lines to let you know my address. This station has been opened for only two weeks and it is in a pretty chaotic state. We are the first R.A.F tenant or guests in this hotel & have been trying ever since our arrival last night to impart a little order to the prevailing confusion.
I received a bitter disappointment immediately after arriving here for I learnt that we should, in theory, stay for only two [deleted] days [/deleted] weeks. Mind you I haven’t heard the official reason [deleted] for the reason [/deleted] for our being here or for the brevity of the stay, yet it appears that this station has been opened to act as a Receiving Wing (R.W.) for Air Crew. It would also seem that at last things are getting a real move on as far as training of Air Crew is concerned & fellows are being summoned here in date order of enlistment whether they have been on ground defence or on deferred service since enlistment. Thus there are Civvies & Airmen with several months service, here together and after the former have been given kit, inoculations etc. we shall all have drill, P.T. & classes in elementary Maths. After the two weeks have elapsed we should be posted to an initial training wing (I.T.W.) for a course of several weeks in Maths, Navigation, Morse, Aeroplane Recognition & more drill. There may, however, be hold ups all along the line in the training of observers because any Pilots rejected are transferred to observer courses at a stage corresponding to their progress as Pilots prior to their rejection.
There is no camp or central station here. We all live in requisitioned hotels in different parts of the town. One hotel is used for H.Q, another for Medical Staff & treatments a third for feeding in & several others to house the men. The one in which I have been put is a large building formerly a private hotel, I imagine, for it is off the main road and has no claims to antiquity, [inserted] or [/inserted] A.A & RAC signs such as the big hotels in the town [indecipherable word]. It is devoid of all furnishings and has only one fire – in the common room. There is no central heating but H.C. is available although on the ground floor there are 25 men (including me) and only one wash basin. Alas the quiet &
[page break]
and privacy of Grantham is no more for I am in a room containing 15 fellows all [inserted] crowded [/inserted] very [deleted] cro [/deleted] close to one another there being only a few inches between each bed. Lack of warmth is again one of our complaints. Fires are not allowed in the rooms used as bedrooms but only in one common room which could comfortably accomodate [sic] 20 men wheras [sic] there are upwards of 75 in the house.
We have been told in no uncertain terms that there will be no leave WHATSOEVER during our stay here. What Christmas will be like I haven’t been able to glean but I imagine that it will be very much like a Sunday & that little will be done after a morning parade. Tomorrow I intend, if allowed, to leave here after Church parade in an attempt to visit Priors Marston & be back here at 9.30 for roll call. Late Passes are NOT ALLOWED. If I am able to manage it, I wonder if you would consider going down there with my parents just before Xmas. On Christmas day, I hope to get off early & will either try to get to PM under my own steam or ring up for a helping hand. Ian, I believe, will be there & it is not many miles from here so that I am sure that in Christmas day, of all days, they would be willing to devote a little petrol to me. If Boxing Day is also a half day I would repeat the dose & also on any Sunday so long as you were at PM. Of course, this is only conjecture but let me know as soon as you can how you react to the idea. So far as I can gather, we will not get any leave for months & months and certainly during our proper training no interruption for leave will be tolerated. Therefore I would like to seize every possible opportunity of seeing you. With all these changes & consequent interruptions to regular correspondence you seem very remote to me at the moment. I live in an entirely different world from you and it is sometimes difficult to imagine that I shall ever be back in the old life again. I do wish that I could see your again soon if only for a short time, it would be a real refresher for me.
I shall stop this letter at the end of the page so that I can catch the evenings post but I shall try to start another letter later on tonight. I hope you are well, bright and cheerful as ever my darling. Do let me have a word from you as soon as you possibly can & send me hankies & the other things that I want.
Please give me an idea of what you would like for Christmas and send me my P.O Saving Book at once
All my love dearest – I long to see you
John.
5/2 Flight, 9 R.W.
R.A.F.
Stratford Hotel
Stratford-on-Avon
Saturday 14/12/40.
My Dearest Ursula,
This may turn out to be only a few short lines to let you know my address. This station has been opened for only two weeks and it is in a pretty chaotic state. We are the first R.A.F tenant or guests in this hotel & have been trying ever since our arrival last night to impart a little order to the prevailing confusion.
I received a bitter disappointment immediately after arriving here for I learnt that we should, in theory, stay for only two [deleted] days [/deleted] weeks. Mind you I haven’t heard the official reason [deleted] for the reason [/deleted] for our being here or for the brevity of the stay, yet it appears that this station has been opened to act as a Receiving Wing (R.W.) for Air Crew. It would also seem that at last things are getting a real move on as far as training of Air Crew is concerned & fellows are being summoned here in date order of enlistment whether they have been on ground defence or on deferred service since enlistment. Thus there are Civvies & Airmen with several months service, here together and after the former have been given kit, inoculations etc. we shall all have drill, P.T. & classes in elementary Maths. After the two weeks have elapsed we should be posted to an initial training wing (I.T.W.) for a course of several weeks in Maths, Navigation, Morse, Aeroplane Recognition & more drill. There may, however, be hold ups all along the line in the training of observers because any Pilots rejected are transferred to observer courses at a stage corresponding to their progress as Pilots prior to their rejection.
There is no camp or central station here. We all live in requisitioned hotels in different parts of the town. One hotel is used for H.Q, another for Medical Staff & treatments a third for feeding in & several others to house the men. The one in which I have been put is a large building formerly a private hotel, I imagine, for it is off the main road and has no claims to antiquity, [inserted] or [/inserted] A.A & RAC signs such as the big hotels in the town [indecipherable word]. It is devoid of all furnishings and has only one fire – in the common room. There is no central heating but H.C. is available although on the ground floor there are 25 men (including me) and only one wash basin. Alas the quiet &
[page break]
and privacy of Grantham is no more for I am in a room containing 15 fellows all [inserted] crowded [/inserted] very [deleted] cro [/deleted] close to one another there being only a few inches between each bed. Lack of warmth is again one of our complaints. Fires are not allowed in the rooms used as bedrooms but only in one common room which could comfortably accomodate [sic] 20 men wheras [sic] there are upwards of 75 in the house.
We have been told in no uncertain terms that there will be no leave WHATSOEVER during our stay here. What Christmas will be like I haven’t been able to glean but I imagine that it will be very much like a Sunday & that little will be done after a morning parade. Tomorrow I intend, if allowed, to leave here after Church parade in an attempt to visit Priors Marston & be back here at 9.30 for roll call. Late Passes are NOT ALLOWED. If I am able to manage it, I wonder if you would consider going down there with my parents just before Xmas. On Christmas day, I hope to get off early & will either try to get to PM under my own steam or ring up for a helping hand. Ian, I believe, will be there & it is not many miles from here so that I am sure that in Christmas day, of all days, they would be willing to devote a little petrol to me. If Boxing Day is also a half day I would repeat the dose & also on any Sunday so long as you were at PM. Of course, this is only conjecture but let me know as soon as you can how you react to the idea. So far as I can gather, we will not get any leave for months & months and certainly during our proper training no interruption for leave will be tolerated. Therefore I would like to seize every possible opportunity of seeing you. With all these changes & consequent interruptions to regular correspondence you seem very remote to me at the moment. I live in an entirely different world from you and it is sometimes difficult to imagine that I shall ever be back in the old life again. I do wish that I could see your again soon if only for a short time, it would be a real refresher for me.
I shall stop this letter at the end of the page so that I can catch the evenings post but I shall try to start another letter later on tonight. I hope you are well, bright and cheerful as ever my darling. Do let me have a word from you as soon as you possibly can & send me hankies & the other things that I want.
Please give me an idea of what you would like for Christmas and send me my P.O Saving Book at once
All my love dearest – I long to see you
John.
Collection
Citation
John Ross Mckenzie Valentine, “Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19155.
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