Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 58-115. Discusses correct mailing addresses. Mentions his sense of taste is improving and talks about tobacco. Speculates on possible future after the war believing staying with previous firm will give them best standard of living. Therefore not going into agriculture until he had reestablished himself in the city.

1943-07-25

Two page handwritten letter

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.

EValentineJRMValentineUM430725

Darling Ursula: Our mail address is now definitely established as Stalag Luft [?] – no “veas”[?] or [one indecipherable word]like while for everything else it is Luft VI. This is final & I’ll be glad if you’d pass it on to anyone likely to write to me. I am happy to say that my dormant senses are showing signs of life after all these months of slumber. During the past day or two I have been able to taste etc most of the time & I have got busy on some of the chocolate & pipe tobacco I had accumulated, & am enjoying life a great deal more than before. My father is my main[?] supplier of tobacco but I wonder if you could send off[?] a little Cut Golden Bar to give me a change. I wonder if the “ready rubbed” form is available for export? if so I’d prefer it. Just at the moment I am able to find space for fiddle practice since one of our latrines is u/s & unused pending repairs. I wish with all my heart that I could get a regular place for practise. I’m looking forward to those exercises you sent for I’m badly in need of material to play and also strings of which there is a grave shortage[?] here. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about our own first war position[?] (assuming that this war will end) & I grow daily more certain that farming is not for us for years ahead. As I see it, my duty ( and inclination) is [inserted] to [/inserted] provide you & ours with the best standard of living within my powers. Touches[?] undoubtedly offers the best opportunity for me to earn a reasonably good salary & the better I am at their trade, the better should be my renumeration. Therefore I have written to Tosy[?] asking him to consult G.T. & to send appropriate study books. My views on a home must differ from those of a few months back when I visualised [inserted] a [/inserted] more or less immediate attempt at farming. I would definitely like it in the country, but until I have found my feet once more in the city I would be unwilling to encumber myself with some acres of land & their attendant worries. I regret that I find Agriculture as a subject for [underlined] study only [/underlined] intensely boring & rarely open a book on the subject. My main interest in life is, of course, you & Frances. My longing for you grows no less & my curiousity [sic] about Frances grows daily. I hope you have a real holiday this year. My fondest love to both
John.

[page break]

[reverse of letter]
GEPRUFT 32

MRS U.M. VALENTINE
[deleted] LIDO, TENTERDEN GROVE, HENDON, LONDON NW4 [/deleted]
[inserted] Little Close, Devon Rd., Salcombe, Devon, England [/inserted]

[/reverse of letter]
[page break]