Postcard from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Postcard from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 59-116. Writes that life is monotonous but encouraged by news. Getting in practice on violin but lacks strings. Mail is still not regular.

1943-07-30

Two sided handwritten postcard

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.

EValentineJRMValentineUM430730

Start of transcription
Kriegsgefangenenlager
Datum: 30th July 1943.
Life continues to be as monotonous as ever but we are encouraged by news of current events. Optimism is rife in the camp but I try to fight against it for fear of future disappointments. Thanks to another latrine becoming u/s I manage to do quite a lot of practice but am sadly short of strings. I have no “A” strings at all & am using an old banjo one for that purpose. I think I progress but wish I could have a permanent haven for practice. Your mail hasn’t started arriving regularly since we came here & I feel the lack of it acutely. Hope your people are settling down well & that everyone is fit. My fondest love to you Frances. Ever yours
John.
[page break]
59/116
Kriegsgefangenenpost
Postkarte
[two stamps]
MRS U.M. VALENTINE
[deleted] LIDO [/deleted] [inserted] Little Close [/inserted]
Emfangsort: [deleted] TENTERDEN GROVE [/deleted] [inserted] Devon Rd [/inserted]
Strasse: [deleted] HENDON LONDON NW4 [/deleted] [inserted] Salcombe [/inserted]
Land: ENGLAND
Devon
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname
Sgt. John Valentine
Gefangenennummer: 459
Lager-Bezeichnung:
[deleted] M. [/deleted] -Stammlager Luft 3
Deutschland (Germany)