Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 20. Notes that letter ration has been reduced to one letter and one card outbound and 4 letter inbound in per month. List letters arrived including some from friends. Not able to reply to them due to limits on letters out. Writes of domestic matters, mentions food parcel from Portugal. Requests she asks base to return his post office savings book. Talks of future home and that he has started learning German and is continuing with violin. He is cheerful and busy but complains of lack of letters from the Valentine clan.

1942-09-30

Two page handwritten letter

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EValentineJRMValentineUM420930

From Sgt JRM Valentine
POW no 450 M Semmlager Luft 3 Germany

to Mrs UM Valentine
Lido
Tenterden Gardens
Hendon
London NW 4
London

No. 20 30-9-42
Darling Ursula: Mail ration has been reduced (temporarily I hope) to 1 letter &1 card (outgoing) & 4 letters (incoming) per month. Will tell you if & when ban lifted. Your letters 1-15, 21 & 22 received, 3 from Ba, 2 from Cowdry, 1 from Johnson. Please thank them & explain why I don’t reply. Neither photos nor numbers hold up mail. Sorry to hear of Ba’s visit to doctor. Hope she is fit now. Some small food parcels have arrived from M. Clark, Lisbon. I was able to send a card of thanks before the mail ban but will you please write for me & say I’m really grateful. Who is he? Have had letter from British Legation Stockholm saying “nothing doing” & one from Zurich promising a parcel. Please ask base to return to you my P.O.S.B. Don’t bother about a rug yet – I’m much to busy to take on anything fresh yet. Did Peter pass exam? Don’t bother about book parcels. I read Roger Herries & Judith Paris at the Squadron. Buy as much as you can for our future home, from kitchen utensils to furniture. Have had some clothing issued recently & managed to exchange my oil soaked slacks but not the jacket. Have got all necessities now bar sufficient blankets. Have at last started German seriously. Hans Lensing is my mentor for he speaks it well. There are but few opportunities for speaking it though, for conversation with our guards is not encouraged & many of them speak English. I am doing 2 hours daily on the fiddle but progress is slow especially for a musical dunce like myself. I am kept exceedingly busy morn till night with barrack duties, violin & German so that I read very little nowadays. The large photos of you & Frances are prominently displayed on the walls of my room & much admired by all including a German officer who inspected the barrack once. I get a tremendous amount of pleasure from gazing at them but often they fill me with agonising longing. I’m very fit now, cheerful & busy. The days pass quickly, so do the weeks but not the months. I was taken prisoner only 4 months ago today. It seems like 4 years. No matter how one occupies oneself, life is terribly monotonous & cramped but we’re jolly lucky to be at this camp. I should hate to be moved now and so would most of us. Still only 4 letters from the whole Valentine tribe, what’s wrong? I think of you many times daily & love you more than ever, if possible. Always yours, John