Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Letter from John Valentine to his wife Ursula

Number 149-6. Delighted to get letter posted 28 November with news that they have moved into new home. Ask all about it and discusses home creating she will have to do. Mentions fellow prisoner has not heard from wife for four months and could she investigate. Laments over missing parcels. Comments on health issues.

1944-02-13

Two page handwritten letter

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EValentineJRMValentineUM440213

Start of transcription
STALAG LUFT III
LAGER “A”
13th February 1944
Darling Ursula: I was absolutely delighted to have yours of 28th Nov (series complete to that) written on the day you moved into our new home. I am tremendously excited at the thought that at last we have a place that we can call our own (even if we do owe 90% of the purchase price) & I am very very [sic] keen to know all about it, its size, location, rooms & their layout, neighbours, garden etc. etc. Please, in due course, send me every possible detail of it & of all your heroic labours in fitting it up & furnishing it. I don’t want you to think that I am calmly taking for granted your courage & energy in embarking single-handed on such a major project so vital to our future. On the contrary I gaze from afar in amazement at your manifold activities & am deeply (I repeat – deeply) grateful for all you do I thirst for news of progress. This is the first letter I’ve addressed to the house because I did not know, before, if you had actually moved in. My warmest thanks, darling, for everything & best wishes for success in all you do. Home creating nowadays must be like making bricks without straw. Would you repeat the Horswells phone No. It wasn’t censored but some remarks re Jack BP on the reverse side were obliterated & the number along with them. Frank Pepper hasn’t heard from his wife, for over 4 months & is very depressed. Could you find out from Olga if there’s any particular reason for the silence. I’m certainly luckier than he in having you for a wife. Yours of 7th Nov also here. I hope your gloomy forecast re my Sept parcel proves wrong. It would be hard to lose 2 consecutive parcels. I’m running short of boot polish & ran out of toothpaste weeks ago. What is the final outcome of the piano business? Had a letter with xmas wishes from Joan Moore Coulson – could you thank her please . There’s [censored words] I had a rotten cold recently & spent 1 day in bed which prove sufficient to prevent developments & I’m very fit again. Since doing my nose as M.O. directed my colds vanish quickly instead of lingering almost indefinitely
Love John.
[page break]
149 – 6
[stamp]
[underlined] Kriegsgefangenenpost [/underlined]
An MRS U.M. VALENTINE
FELMERSHAM
[stamp]
Empfangsort: BOTTRELLS LANE
Strasse: CHALFONT ST GILES
Kreis: BUCKS
Land: ENGLAND
Absender:
Vor- und Zuname: Sgft. J.R.M. VALENTINE
Gefangenennummer: 450
Lager-Bezeichnung [deleted] Kriegsgefangenenlager der Luftwaffe Nr. 6 [/deleted]
STALAG LUFT III
LAGER A
Deutschland (Allemagne)