Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 26. No letters from her received for three weeks and reprisals mentioned in last letter are being released for Easter. Mentions health. Noted letter from Belgian colleague who had been removed from camp. Writes that he is depressed at the moment, especially over his progress with violin. Difficult to get time to self as duties interfere. States they now have 152 men in his hut which is not that big.

1943-04-22

Two page handwritten letter

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EValentineJRMValentineUM430422

NUMBER 26
22nd April 1943
Dearest Ursula: I have little news tonight & no letters to acknowledge. Soon it will be 3 weeks since I heard from you & the reprisals which I described in my last card are being partly released during the Easter week end but we do not know if they will be resumed afterwards. At long last my spots seem to have disappeared, but I am still have [sic] trouble with my nasal organ, blast it! The camp leader received a letter from Jean Potille today – it was merely a request for some of his clothes & he said nothing about his state of health nor the treatment he is receiving. However it was good to hear from him & to know that, at last, he is still alive. I had another parcel of tobacco & cigarettes yesterday from “The Wardens” I don’t know who they are but they are certainly being kind to me. I have just read “The Arches of the Years” by Halliday Sutherland. It was quite entertaining but very similar to San Michele (Axel Munthe) & if I had not read the latter I would have enjoyed the former more. This is a terrible place for moods & I am in the depths of a depression just now – for no real reason, of course. I feel most gloomy over my fiddle prospects at the moment & am absolutely consumed of my inability to be anything but a very poor performer. The work that lies ahead of me is nothing but colossal – you can have very little conception of it – I tremble when I think of it. However I try to adopt an ostrich like attitude (not, of course, when actually playing the bloody thing) and to plug away as if the end were actually within sight. In our study of elementary harmony we are now delving into minor scales & the whole subject is about as clear as mud. These two subjects (fiddle & harmony) are about all I manage in that line although I do dabble occasionally in Dutch & Agriculture – but conditions are very definitely against study here. One can never get two minutes away from anyone else or free from interruptions of one sort or another. Queues are constantly arising in the block & I am often called in as arbiter in some petty dispute. Incidentally we have more men in the hut now. We started with 164 packed like sardines & after complaining to the Red X the number was reduced by 20. Recently there have been fresh arrivals although we remained up to strength & we now have 152 men - & the huts aren’t enormous either. However we are better here than in Japan, I guess. I hope all goes well with you my dearest, & with your little ray of panshine. My love to you both, Always yours
John
[page break]
84
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[GEPRÜFT 55 stamp]
An MRS U M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Emfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Strasse: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON NW4
Land: ENGLAND
[stamp]
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt John Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung M.-Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (Germany)