Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Title
Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula
Description
Number 5. Writes glowingly of rug that was sent and he would like another if possible. Writes about all the photographs he has. Discusses the love life of one of his fellow prisoners and expresses wish that the same will not happen to them. Still waiting to hear about he factory job. mentions his health, fitness, weather and learning violin without an instructor.
Creator
Date
1943-03-11
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
EValentineJRMValentineUM430311
Transcription
NUMBER 5. 11 – 03 – 43
Darling Ursula: I have been meaning, for some time now, to pay tribute to Barbara’s rug. It really is superb – so warm & yet so light. I much prefer it to any other bed cover that I have & should I have to endure another winter here I’d love to have another, if you can pursuade [sic] anyone to make one. Mayet [sic] reinstate my request for a kit bag. I now have so much stuff that [inserted] the [/inserted] one given by the Red X will not be sufficient for my home coming. Mail is not arriving in such large quantities now & I haven’t had any for a week now I’m still awaiting your letter telling me about [indecipherable word] wedding. I have a grand collection of photos of you & Frances now (thanks to Ba) but most of them are kept in envelopes & brought out periodically to cheer me up. However some are displayed promminently [sic] in my room & attract universal admiration from captors and captives alike. Of you I have my old favourite & the large full face portrait of you in your black dress & also the recent charming one (postcard size, wearing jumper) of Frances I have the large one taken in her chair some months ago and the recent delightful bath one – that is a positive joy. What about one of you taken in the bath?? Not sucking the flannel please. Hans Lensing heard from his fiancé in Holland yesterday that she had fallen in love with another man & so it’s all off. I felt very sorry for him at first but I’ve a hunch that he has other strings to his bow – in England & he may not be too upset after all. If I were to get similar news I think I would try to climb over the barbed wire – thus inviting a murciful [sic] end from the sentries machine guns It could mean the end of everything worth having for if I were to lose you – at times this separation alone is almost intolerable. Incidentally Hans Aunt wrote some very complimentary remarks about you – so have [indecipherable word] [indecipherable word] Mother. I love hearing praise of you from others, almost as much as hearing from you, yourself. I am still anxiously awaiting fuller details of your factory work – for I worry not a little about it. I am still tasteless, my foot hasn’t healed yet & my spots have returned but they are definitely not fleas – merely heat spots I think. Otherwise I am very fit – fitter I think than when on active service. I plug away at the fiddle but long for an instructor. I do so much wrong that I don’t know how & where to correct myself. We are having lovely weather this month – very clear sky cool at night (10-12 degrees frost) but sunny days although the wind is cool. All my love, darling, I’m ever yours. Keep yourself & Frances fit. [missing word]
[page break]
64 (5)
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[sticker] EXAMINER 3310 [/sticker]
[postmark] GEPRUFT 32 [/postmark]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
StraBe: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W4
Land: ENGLAND
[underlined] Gebuhrenfriel [/underlined] Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
[sticker] OPENED BY P.C.90 [/sticker]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt JRM VALENTINE
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
[page break]
Darling Ursula: I have been meaning, for some time now, to pay tribute to Barbara’s rug. It really is superb – so warm & yet so light. I much prefer it to any other bed cover that I have & should I have to endure another winter here I’d love to have another, if you can pursuade [sic] anyone to make one. Mayet [sic] reinstate my request for a kit bag. I now have so much stuff that [inserted] the [/inserted] one given by the Red X will not be sufficient for my home coming. Mail is not arriving in such large quantities now & I haven’t had any for a week now I’m still awaiting your letter telling me about [indecipherable word] wedding. I have a grand collection of photos of you & Frances now (thanks to Ba) but most of them are kept in envelopes & brought out periodically to cheer me up. However some are displayed promminently [sic] in my room & attract universal admiration from captors and captives alike. Of you I have my old favourite & the large full face portrait of you in your black dress & also the recent charming one (postcard size, wearing jumper) of Frances I have the large one taken in her chair some months ago and the recent delightful bath one – that is a positive joy. What about one of you taken in the bath?? Not sucking the flannel please. Hans Lensing heard from his fiancé in Holland yesterday that she had fallen in love with another man & so it’s all off. I felt very sorry for him at first but I’ve a hunch that he has other strings to his bow – in England & he may not be too upset after all. If I were to get similar news I think I would try to climb over the barbed wire – thus inviting a murciful [sic] end from the sentries machine guns It could mean the end of everything worth having for if I were to lose you – at times this separation alone is almost intolerable. Incidentally Hans Aunt wrote some very complimentary remarks about you – so have [indecipherable word] [indecipherable word] Mother. I love hearing praise of you from others, almost as much as hearing from you, yourself. I am still anxiously awaiting fuller details of your factory work – for I worry not a little about it. I am still tasteless, my foot hasn’t healed yet & my spots have returned but they are definitely not fleas – merely heat spots I think. Otherwise I am very fit – fitter I think than when on active service. I plug away at the fiddle but long for an instructor. I do so much wrong that I don’t know how & where to correct myself. We are having lovely weather this month – very clear sky cool at night (10-12 degrees frost) but sunny days although the wind is cool. All my love, darling, I’m ever yours. Keep yourself & Frances fit. [missing word]
[page break]
64 (5)
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[sticker] EXAMINER 3310 [/sticker]
[postmark] GEPRUFT 32 [/postmark]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
StraBe: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N.W4
Land: ENGLAND
[underlined] Gebuhrenfriel [/underlined] Landesteil (Provinz usw.)
[sticker] OPENED BY P.C.90 [/sticker]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt JRM VALENTINE
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
[underlined] Deutschland (Germany) [/underlined]
[page break]
Collection
Citation
John Ross Mckenzie Valentine, “Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 27, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19275.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.