Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Title
Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Description
Number 32. Notes letters received. States he has no objects belonging to his pilot (Floyd) and that he also tried to get recognition of his gallantry without success. Catches up with news. Writes he is fully occupied but has not stated his agricultural studies yet. Thanks various people for letters and parcels. mentions his health and weather. Writes that domestic chores take up much time and requests she send socks.
Creator
Date
1942-12-03
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
EValentineJRMValentineUM421203
Transcription
Start of transcription
[underlined] NUMBER 32. [/underlined] 3-12-42.
My Dearest Ursula - (I mean that too!) two most welcome letters of yours arrived today dated 31st Oct & 6th Nov. I have nothing of Floyds, nor is it possible for me to get anything that may have survived the crash. I tried to get official recognition of Philips gallantry sent through from here but that sort of thing is all too common & nobody would listen. Glad to hear of your new garments. Wish I could see you in them. Please convey my condolences to the surviving Miss [one indecipherable word] - a nasty blow for her. Many thanks for bowing tip. I am all too conscious of the incredible stiffness of both my wrists & fear that I’ll never be even a moderate violinist. You can tell MR Tait politely but firmly that I don’t want any professional literature (say there’s plenty here) I simply haven’t a spare second to take on any fresh studies or reading. Time does not (definitely not) hang heavily on my hands. I’m fully occupied all my waking hours & I haven’t started Agric. yet. Where I’m going to get the time to do that when the books arrive I haven’t the slightest idea. Thank him for his letter of good wishes (which are heartily reciprocated) & for his news of [one indecipherable word] parcel. I’m grateful to Myra Hess for her kindly interest & also for the Gunns efforts to get stuff from U.S.A. Please thank your Aunt Margaret for her gift. I’ll write myself whenever I get a chance. By all means keep up your political scrap book. Please thank Auntie Horace [inserted] MRS Harris [/inserted] & Angus Milligan for their letter. My Fathers medical comforts parcel has arrived & is very welcome. My tastelessness has arrived with its full force once more despite my efforts despite my efforts with the Argotone. I’m certain that the wretched weather of recent weeks has much to do with it. Irenes [sic] romances leave me gasping. To whom is she really finally engaged? Tell her if she wants to explore any fresh avenues I could put her in touch with some nice “Kriegys” as we call ourselves. I’m still playing away at the fiddle & also “Rudiments of Music” which I find absolutely fascinating. I’ve started Dutch because I hear it spoken much more than German & think I ought to make more progression in it. I haven’t dropped German entirely but devote [inserted] to it [/inserted] what free time (if any) that I have. The trouble is the incredible amount of time taken up by dull domestic chores eg. cooking, keeping room clean, washing clothes (how I loathe it) washing up, darning & mending. In any future parcels please send new or nearly new socks. Two pairs that came in your first parcel were more or less full of holes & I just can’t darn - yet. My longing for you grows daily - I’d love to see Frances too.
Fondest love, for ever John.
[page break]
EXAMINER 9517
[post mark]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
An MRS U M. VALENTINE
“LIDO”
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Straße: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W.4
Land: ENGLAND
Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
P.C. 90
OPENED BY
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt J.R.M VALENTINE
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (Germany)
[underlined] NUMBER 32. [/underlined] 3-12-42.
My Dearest Ursula - (I mean that too!) two most welcome letters of yours arrived today dated 31st Oct & 6th Nov. I have nothing of Floyds, nor is it possible for me to get anything that may have survived the crash. I tried to get official recognition of Philips gallantry sent through from here but that sort of thing is all too common & nobody would listen. Glad to hear of your new garments. Wish I could see you in them. Please convey my condolences to the surviving Miss [one indecipherable word] - a nasty blow for her. Many thanks for bowing tip. I am all too conscious of the incredible stiffness of both my wrists & fear that I’ll never be even a moderate violinist. You can tell MR Tait politely but firmly that I don’t want any professional literature (say there’s plenty here) I simply haven’t a spare second to take on any fresh studies or reading. Time does not (definitely not) hang heavily on my hands. I’m fully occupied all my waking hours & I haven’t started Agric. yet. Where I’m going to get the time to do that when the books arrive I haven’t the slightest idea. Thank him for his letter of good wishes (which are heartily reciprocated) & for his news of [one indecipherable word] parcel. I’m grateful to Myra Hess for her kindly interest & also for the Gunns efforts to get stuff from U.S.A. Please thank your Aunt Margaret for her gift. I’ll write myself whenever I get a chance. By all means keep up your political scrap book. Please thank Auntie Horace [inserted] MRS Harris [/inserted] & Angus Milligan for their letter. My Fathers medical comforts parcel has arrived & is very welcome. My tastelessness has arrived with its full force once more despite my efforts despite my efforts with the Argotone. I’m certain that the wretched weather of recent weeks has much to do with it. Irenes [sic] romances leave me gasping. To whom is she really finally engaged? Tell her if she wants to explore any fresh avenues I could put her in touch with some nice “Kriegys” as we call ourselves. I’m still playing away at the fiddle & also “Rudiments of Music” which I find absolutely fascinating. I’ve started Dutch because I hear it spoken much more than German & think I ought to make more progression in it. I haven’t dropped German entirely but devote [inserted] to it [/inserted] what free time (if any) that I have. The trouble is the incredible amount of time taken up by dull domestic chores eg. cooking, keeping room clean, washing clothes (how I loathe it) washing up, darning & mending. In any future parcels please send new or nearly new socks. Two pairs that came in your first parcel were more or less full of holes & I just can’t darn - yet. My longing for you grows daily - I’d love to see Frances too.
Fondest love, for ever John.
[page break]
EXAMINER 9517
[post mark]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
An MRS U M. VALENTINE
“LIDO”
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Straße: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W.4
Land: ENGLAND
Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
P.C. 90
OPENED BY
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt J.R.M VALENTINE
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (Germany)
Collection
Citation
J R M Valentine, “Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19234.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.