Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 50(167). First letter from the new camp. He mentions the journey to the camp and the conditions on arrival and is very disappointed that there is nowhere suitable for fiddle practice. Mentions new camp has better surroundings and potential accommodation is enormous. Worries that her letters will arrive less frequently.

1943-06-15

Two page handwritten letter

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EValentineJRMValentineUM430515

50 (167)
15th June 1943

My Dearest Ursula. This is my first letter from the new camp. We have a very crowded but otherwise tolerable journey of 2 night & 1 day with little sleep en route, but soon made [up?] for that. This camp is brand new, unfinished & in a very raw state generally. No longer do I enjoy the sheltered privacy of a small room but am in one holding [censored] men of which I have been elected the Fuhrer. It is certainly a better room to live in than the barrack rooms at Luft III but we fear that it won’t be too warm in winter. My greatest disappointment is that there is positively nowhere suitable for fiddle practice. Just now, it looks as if I’ll have to give up the instrument & I’m terribly depressed at the thought. It was my main interest in life I was extremely keen & thoroughly enjoyed even the most monotonous of exercises. I was looking forward to being able to produce something of value at the conclusion of this otherwise completely wasted chunk of my life. Study too, especially organised study will be at a dead loss on account of lack of accomodation[sic]. As a result of these setbacks I have been very gloomly[sic] since my arrival here 3 days ago & consequently have longed for you even more. I have reread a lot of your letters & gone through all my photo’s which cheered me up a lot. The surroundings of this camp are better than before & the potential accommodation[sic] is enormous so that there are possibilities of great improvement in the course of time. All I can do is hope for the best & take the rough with the smooth [inserted] to [/inserted] which I am fairly reconciled anyway. My greatest regret of course is that my letters to you will be less frequent & will take longer. There is positively no way of remedying that so you & I must “belt up” in that respect. Your letters to me will suffer delay, I fear, but not reduction in number, I hope. I sincerely hope that you & Frances will have a real holiday this year & I mean the word [underlined] real [/underlined]. You deserve an absolute rest for a few weeks at least . My fondest love – for ever John.

Please note new address (revised[?] yet again!)

[page break]

[reverse of letter]
GEPRUFT 74

MRS U. M. VALENTINE
[deleted] LIDO
TENTERDEN GROVE
HENDON
LONDON NW4 [/deleted]

[inserted]
Little Close
Devon Rd
Salcombe
[/inserted]

Sgt John Valentine
450
STALAG LUFT VI

[/reverse of letter]