Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Title
Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Description
Number 58. Lists letters received and mentions medicine and request she send violin strings. Sorry that American parcels have stopped. Writes about future home appliances and mentions music theory study. Is delighted with photographs she sent of daughter Frances. Speculates about their future with farming.
Creator
Date
1943-02-26
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
EValentineJRMValentineUM430226
Transcription
Number 58
26-2-43
Darling Ursula: Your letter No 45 arrived today breaking a silence of a fortnight. I now have all those up to 45 except 40. The Argotone I used was yours & I'm using it again for my senses [inserted] have disappeared [/inserted] once more. Fiddle strings for the camp would be very welcome, since supplies are short. Sorry to hear about American parcels stopping - but after all [three indecipherable words]. Everyone here should get the same. After my experience of agonising washing in ice cold water I'll willingly buy you an electric machine after the war. Lets hope we get the refrigerator too. Glad you contacted our piano man & hope to hear that he has looked after it. I still find theory of music & harmony fascinating but very, very involved. Wish I could have a game of squash with you - both sorts of squash! Any news yet of Oliva [?] Hazards husband? Two marvellous photos came with your letter - of Frances in her winter suiting looking very happy & a delightful one of you. The latter thrills me enormously. I have been doing some serious thinking about our future & I have come reluctantly to the conclusion that whole time farming is out of the question for years yet unless I make a fortune rapidly. If I go back to Touches [?] I should get £500 p.a. which I regard as a minimum for you & Frances (and me). If I were to start to learn farming properly I should have to live on a labourers wage & even when that period expired I would not have enough capital to buy or rent a farm of sufficient size to provide the necessary income for maintainance [sic] of wife & family & education of the latter. Therefore I feel strongly that all we can do is get a home in the country but near a good train service to London - rent a few acres - play about with & learn from them while still working [?] for Touches [?] & if successful add to them when & where possible (By the time the next war comes I then ought to have a small farm & be definitely in a reserved occupation!!) For that reason I haven't done much agricultural study yet & because I have a lot of official work to do & am still very interested in the fiddle, music & Dutch - none of which I wish to drop yet. I only have about 1/2 hr per day free for reading, as it is. It would be superb if you could get the country house for us before I come home so that you would have something tangible to work on when looking about for furnishings of one sort & another. When choosing a place - a school for Frances & her younger brothers & sisters must be an important consideration. I wonder if you have any more news of the date of your parents return. - & of mine too! I'm getting bored with this half life & long for you intensely. All my love
John
[page break]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[sticker] EXAMINER 3310 [/sticker]
[ink stamp] GEPRÜFT 32 [/ink stamp]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Straβe: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W 4
Land: ENGLAND
Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
[underlined] Gebührenfrei! [/underlined]
[sticker] OPENED BY P.C [/sticker]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt JRM Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
End of transcription
26-2-43
Darling Ursula: Your letter No 45 arrived today breaking a silence of a fortnight. I now have all those up to 45 except 40. The Argotone I used was yours & I'm using it again for my senses [inserted] have disappeared [/inserted] once more. Fiddle strings for the camp would be very welcome, since supplies are short. Sorry to hear about American parcels stopping - but after all [three indecipherable words]. Everyone here should get the same. After my experience of agonising washing in ice cold water I'll willingly buy you an electric machine after the war. Lets hope we get the refrigerator too. Glad you contacted our piano man & hope to hear that he has looked after it. I still find theory of music & harmony fascinating but very, very involved. Wish I could have a game of squash with you - both sorts of squash! Any news yet of Oliva [?] Hazards husband? Two marvellous photos came with your letter - of Frances in her winter suiting looking very happy & a delightful one of you. The latter thrills me enormously. I have been doing some serious thinking about our future & I have come reluctantly to the conclusion that whole time farming is out of the question for years yet unless I make a fortune rapidly. If I go back to Touches [?] I should get £500 p.a. which I regard as a minimum for you & Frances (and me). If I were to start to learn farming properly I should have to live on a labourers wage & even when that period expired I would not have enough capital to buy or rent a farm of sufficient size to provide the necessary income for maintainance [sic] of wife & family & education of the latter. Therefore I feel strongly that all we can do is get a home in the country but near a good train service to London - rent a few acres - play about with & learn from them while still working [?] for Touches [?] & if successful add to them when & where possible (By the time the next war comes I then ought to have a small farm & be definitely in a reserved occupation!!) For that reason I haven't done much agricultural study yet & because I have a lot of official work to do & am still very interested in the fiddle, music & Dutch - none of which I wish to drop yet. I only have about 1/2 hr per day free for reading, as it is. It would be superb if you could get the country house for us before I come home so that you would have something tangible to work on when looking about for furnishings of one sort & another. When choosing a place - a school for Frances & her younger brothers & sisters must be an important consideration. I wonder if you have any more news of the date of your parents return. - & of mine too! I'm getting bored with this half life & long for you intensely. All my love
John
[page break]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[sticker] EXAMINER 3310 [/sticker]
[ink stamp] GEPRÜFT 32 [/ink stamp]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Straβe: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W 4
Land: ENGLAND
Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
[underlined] Gebührenfrei! [/underlined]
[sticker] OPENED BY P.C [/sticker]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt JRM Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
End of transcription
Collection
Citation
John Ross Mckenzie Valentine, “Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19264.
Item Relations
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