Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

EValentineJRMValentineUM430416-0001.jpg
EValentineJRMValentineUM430416-0002.jpg

Title

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Description

Number 23. Writes of good weather and flies. Asks her if his pilot's father ever received his card and asks for her to send some Shaw's plays. Asks after her financial situation and discusses issues with RAF accounts. Speculates about future and his employment. Convinced the end of war is not near and he will not see her this year. Speculates over whether he will be sent against Japan when German conflict is over.

Date

1943-04-16

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

Two page handwritten letter

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

EValentineJRMValentineUM430416

Transcription

Start of transcription
NUMBER 23
16-4-43
Dearest Ursula: No further letters from you yet, but I’m always hoping. We have had some real summer weather in the last two days & the camp has turned nudist almost to a man (& to a loincloth) as it did in the heat of last summer. One advantage of warm weather at this time of year is that the flies are absent. Later on we expect them in their millions – that is no exaggeration. Do you know if Floyd Senior has ever received the card I sent him last August. I’ve had no acknowledgement of it. I have plenty to read here, but if you could manage to get hold of some of Shaws plays, novels etc I’d love to read them. An omnibus Shaw would be the thing (if such exists) but some of his works might be forbidden to us here – so if you do get on the trail of something, make sure that the censors will pass it. Alternatively & to save you trouble & expense you could pass the hint out to my Father. Could you let me know sometime how you fare financially – I promise not to be rude but I would like to know if you are getting enough from Touches & RAF for the needs of self & daughter. Also, does the Red X sting you for so much per week – supposedly for the parcels I get? Another point, the RAF ought not be to charging my account with Income Tax since my whole liability is being deducted by Touches before they pay you anything. If you are not sure that the RAF is not stinging us a second time, would you write to the Accounts Dept & get an assurance. I frankly admit that I find the study of agriculture very dull in parts & Im [sic] not really doing it very seriously. It is so divorced from reality here. In addition I become daily more certain that Touches is the only workable proposition for us after the war. I don’t want you & Frances to have to endure penury on the top of all the other tribulations of recent years. The most I hope for is a home in the country & a few acres to dabble with until (if ever) I am in a position to farm in such a way as to maintain the standard of life which you have the right to expect or anticipate. The end of the war still seems remote & I am firmly convinced that I shan’t see you this year - & what is to happen to me assuming the German conflict finishes first? Shall I then be sent out against the Japs? I had some more tobacco from my Father today – I certainly don’t lack smoking material now. For months we smoked anything obtainable, dog ends re-rolled were favourites but we drew the line at dog ends of dog ends. I hope you are well dearest & Frances too – give her a kiss for me. Always yours
John
[page break]
82
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[GEPRÜFT 64 stamp]
An MRS U M VALENTINE
LIDO
Empfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Strasse: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON N W4
Land: ENGLAND
Absender:
Vor- und Zunamen: Sgt John Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 480
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Lufte 3
Deutsche (Germany)

Collection

Citation

John Ross Mckenzie Valentine, “Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19307.

Item Relations

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