Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Title
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Description
Begins with apologising over thing she said when there were no letters from him and understanding that he is now overwhelmed with socks. Continues with more discussion of socks. Mentions she is pleased he has been to the MO and offers suggestions to get over constipation. Writes she is happy they have solved family financial issues and mentions other matters. Talks of buying herself something nice but will wait until back in London. Continues with other future plans and asks if she can get him anything now that he has started flying. Concludes with gossip and news of family/acquaintances.
Creator
Date
1941-05-08
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four page handwritten letter
Publisher
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.
Identifier
EValentineUMValentineJRM410508
Transcription
Trefilan May 8th
Darling Johnnie, Yours of 5th inst to hand. I almost thought you were going to leave me letter-less today when the parcel of socks arrived, & no letter. However, it was delivered later & I had to take back all the things I'd been saying about you. I've just washed the socks & will send them back when darned. I note that you are now overwhelmed with them – Mother said in her last letter that she'd bought more RAF wool & would post off socks for you as they were finished, so cheer up, you haven't reached the summit yet. Anyway it relieves me of any necessity of knitting them. But I would suggest that you send back to Lido or to me all the pairs of non-RAF socks you have with you, which is quite a number, & concentrate on wearing the tougher & coarser ones, so that your civilian stock won't be too much depleted. If you approve I will hang on to non-RAF socks as & when they come to me for washing. That should relieve the congestion a bit.
Talking of congestion, I'm very glad to hear that you went
[page break]
to the M.O. about your constipation & that he is taking it seriously. Still even if he blasts a way through you, the real problem is to get the natural habit restored. If only you could get hold of it, an apple before breakfast is one of the best known natural correctives. Failing that, drink plenty of water before breakfast. I have been suffering the same way myself to a milder degree & have been taking Andrews Liver salts before breakfast, which worked alright in my case. I have to do something otherwise the pile or piles gets enlarged & painful. I'm glad we've settled once & for all this business about Mother's allowance. I shouldn't think the necessity for using it is likely to arise now that we are so very opulent. I have put the last 2 month's £30 into Nat. Sav. Certs. Today I had a draft for £1.0.0 from the RAF covering payment of increased allotment due from 3.3.412 to 16.4.41. I'm not sure what this is, but anyway I cashed it gratefully. I believe I've still got a bit of money due for a couple of weeks for Frances, haven't I? Anyway I have complete faith in the RAF Accounts Dept – Duggie never owes
I really will buy myself something exciting as soon as I see what I'd like. As you know the shops here aren't very comprehensive
[page break]
so I'll probably leave it till I'm back in London for a few days. Ba says Waring & Gillow are having a sale of the remainder of their fashion dept. which got badly hit recently, so if that's still on when I return I might get something nice. Another idea I'm toying with is to have the front of my hair cut shorter & permanently waved so that I can do it up in fashionable style. I haven't decided about this yet, but maybe, for your next leave, I might get it done. But for heavens sake don't talk rot about privation & financial starvation & so on, I've never gone short of [underlined] anything [/underlined] that I needed, & even now I don't intend to branch out in useless luxury, after all they tell me there's a war on. You're a darling & would doubtless spoil me if you could. I only wish you were near me so that we could choose something together. And while we're on the subject, now that you've started flying you'll doubtless discover which of all the varieties of pullovers, polo necks, balaclavas etc. are really useful. Do let me know if there's [underlined] anything [/underlined] you need (apart from socks!) & you know I'd love to knit it. I've hardly made you anything so far.
[page break]
I'm paying the telephone a/c out of the Grindlays a/c – is that right? The letter is enclosed herewith for your instruction. I'm sorry that the Forestry business hasn't got any further yet, tho' by the sound of it you'd hardly have time to study much for the present. By the time you're through your course maybe it will be fixed up. Pity about Miss Hooper too, it must be very galling for you. Frances scored a minor triumph yesterday when she performed a small amount of no.2 actually into the potty. Poor wee thing, she's so small, even for the baby potty, that she folds right up & sits on the bottom, so I have to hold her up the whole time. Last night she slept thro' till 4.30, which is the best yet. I hope the cigarettes find favour, I'd had a spot of bother getting them, apparently they're getting short here, so go canny with them. Would you like me to send you chocolate as well as long as I'm here? Must stop now or I'll miss the post.
All my love, dearest one, I love you & long for you so much. Thank goodness there's Frances to keep my occupied. She's been gazing into my face a lot these last few days, so I'm hoping that soon she'll get to know me as her Mother. Yours always, Ursula
Darling Johnnie, Yours of 5th inst to hand. I almost thought you were going to leave me letter-less today when the parcel of socks arrived, & no letter. However, it was delivered later & I had to take back all the things I'd been saying about you. I've just washed the socks & will send them back when darned. I note that you are now overwhelmed with them – Mother said in her last letter that she'd bought more RAF wool & would post off socks for you as they were finished, so cheer up, you haven't reached the summit yet. Anyway it relieves me of any necessity of knitting them. But I would suggest that you send back to Lido or to me all the pairs of non-RAF socks you have with you, which is quite a number, & concentrate on wearing the tougher & coarser ones, so that your civilian stock won't be too much depleted. If you approve I will hang on to non-RAF socks as & when they come to me for washing. That should relieve the congestion a bit.
Talking of congestion, I'm very glad to hear that you went
[page break]
to the M.O. about your constipation & that he is taking it seriously. Still even if he blasts a way through you, the real problem is to get the natural habit restored. If only you could get hold of it, an apple before breakfast is one of the best known natural correctives. Failing that, drink plenty of water before breakfast. I have been suffering the same way myself to a milder degree & have been taking Andrews Liver salts before breakfast, which worked alright in my case. I have to do something otherwise the pile or piles gets enlarged & painful. I'm glad we've settled once & for all this business about Mother's allowance. I shouldn't think the necessity for using it is likely to arise now that we are so very opulent. I have put the last 2 month's £30 into Nat. Sav. Certs. Today I had a draft for £1.0.0 from the RAF covering payment of increased allotment due from 3.3.412 to 16.4.41. I'm not sure what this is, but anyway I cashed it gratefully. I believe I've still got a bit of money due for a couple of weeks for Frances, haven't I? Anyway I have complete faith in the RAF Accounts Dept – Duggie never owes
I really will buy myself something exciting as soon as I see what I'd like. As you know the shops here aren't very comprehensive
[page break]
so I'll probably leave it till I'm back in London for a few days. Ba says Waring & Gillow are having a sale of the remainder of their fashion dept. which got badly hit recently, so if that's still on when I return I might get something nice. Another idea I'm toying with is to have the front of my hair cut shorter & permanently waved so that I can do it up in fashionable style. I haven't decided about this yet, but maybe, for your next leave, I might get it done. But for heavens sake don't talk rot about privation & financial starvation & so on, I've never gone short of [underlined] anything [/underlined] that I needed, & even now I don't intend to branch out in useless luxury, after all they tell me there's a war on. You're a darling & would doubtless spoil me if you could. I only wish you were near me so that we could choose something together. And while we're on the subject, now that you've started flying you'll doubtless discover which of all the varieties of pullovers, polo necks, balaclavas etc. are really useful. Do let me know if there's [underlined] anything [/underlined] you need (apart from socks!) & you know I'd love to knit it. I've hardly made you anything so far.
[page break]
I'm paying the telephone a/c out of the Grindlays a/c – is that right? The letter is enclosed herewith for your instruction. I'm sorry that the Forestry business hasn't got any further yet, tho' by the sound of it you'd hardly have time to study much for the present. By the time you're through your course maybe it will be fixed up. Pity about Miss Hooper too, it must be very galling for you. Frances scored a minor triumph yesterday when she performed a small amount of no.2 actually into the potty. Poor wee thing, she's so small, even for the baby potty, that she folds right up & sits on the bottom, so I have to hold her up the whole time. Last night she slept thro' till 4.30, which is the best yet. I hope the cigarettes find favour, I'd had a spot of bother getting them, apparently they're getting short here, so go canny with them. Would you like me to send you chocolate as well as long as I'm here? Must stop now or I'll miss the post.
All my love, dearest one, I love you & long for you so much. Thank goodness there's Frances to keep my occupied. She's been gazing into my face a lot these last few days, so I'm hoping that soon she'll get to know me as her Mother. Yours always, Ursula
Collection
Citation
Ursula Valentine, “Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19568.
Item Relations
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