Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

EValentineJRMValentineUM430522-0001.jpg
EValentineJRMValentineUM430522-0002.jpg

Title

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Description

Number 40. Asks after family and friends and her factory work. Talks of postwar plans for study and employment, states they have had notice of move in July and that his Dutch friends going to a different camp. Mentions music exams coming up and it is more than a year since he last saw her.

Date

1943-05-22

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

EValentineJRMValentineUM430522

Transcription

Start of transcription
NUMBER 40
22/5/43
Dearest Ursula: Your letter No 60 came today, No’s 52, 54, 57/59 are still missing I was glad to hear that Vera & son had been staying with you but realise how difficult it must have been for you. How was Vera? Did she ever talk of Norman? What is the babe like? As a matter of fact, I often think of Norman – I did not previously realise how much I liked him. Your parents should be home very soon now Give them greetings from me please. Your Mother’s last parcel arrived today, complete but with the chocolate in a very battered state. Please give her my grateful thanks I was interested to hear of your meetings with Stewart & glad to know that he took you out. I suppose he hasn’t changed much. Fancy Francis being taller than Robert – when was he born? How did you get hold of Mrs G DM Cole for your meetings? [underlined] Now about the factory work of yours. [underlined] I gather only that you go thrice per week & that it is within walking distance. So is John O’Groats, if you like long walks. At least you can tell me how long it takes you to walk & the time you start & stop on each of the 3 weekly occasions. If you could tactfully enlighten me any further I would be most grateful. I am sorry (& [underlined] not [/underlined] for financial reasons) to hear of your visits to the dentist. I hope you get good treatment nowadays. As we seem to be more or less decided that I should at any rate temporarily, return to Touches after this battle, I have been thinking that I ought to study some particular [inserted] professional [/inserted] subject of which [inserted] my [/inserted] knowledge is limited & because my Father has been pestering me with requests to be informed of any of my needs, I am writing to him on the subject – so please don’t feel offended. You have done more for me anyway, that most wives ever could have done for their interned idols. We had confirmation of the rumoured move today. We expect to be shifted in July. There is talk, too, of my Dutch friends going to a different camp. I should be heartily glad to be rid of Mike Loos but extremely sorry to lose the other two. Having lived intimately with them for a year. I have grown a very real liking for both. Despite the Argotone I’m still tasteless - & I have quite a lot of tobacco waiting to be smoked too. Our musical exams will take place in about a fortnight’s time & I’m working quite hard for them. It is more than a year now since I saw you last – previously I think 2 months was the longest spell. Don’t forget that holiday, this year.
Loving you always John
[page break]
98
[stamp]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
[stamp]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
LIDO
Emfangsort: TENTERDEN GROVE
Strasse: HENDON
Kreis: LONDON, NW4
Land: ENGLAND
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgt John Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung: M.-Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (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/19324.

Item Relations

This item has no relations.