Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Writes that she is feeling depressed and longing for his company and goes on with mention of her evening activities as well as problems with the telephone. Acknowledges his letter and discusses content about probability of invasion. Writes of indoor shelter becoming available for £7 and of fitting gas mask to the baby. Says she is sending him newspaper and wishes him luck with examinations.

1941-08-15

Four 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.

EValentineUMValentineJRM410815-02

[underlined] No 6 [/underlined]
Lido
Friday 15/8/41
Darling Johnnie,
I warn you I’m feeling thoroughly depressed this evening, longing for you & your cheerfulness, or if I can’t have you, at least somebody to be company. It has been grey & raining all day which made matters worse, & you can tell I was feeling utterly desperate because I even asked Mrs Neal if her brats would care to come in & play cards, but they were away, so even that was squashed. I have to admit I did cry a wee bit, but it wasn’t much, & then they played Beethoven’s 5th symphony on the wireless which made things a little less bleak so I’ve been sitting doing my mending & listening to all the rest of the drivel they broadcast. I’m finding “Wuthering Heights” increasingly improbable & not particularly cheering reading. Thank goodness Ba will be home tomorrow, tho’ even then she’s on night duty so I’ll be on my own every other night. I do wish Mrs Stenzel would hurry up & come, its so depressing to be alone all the
[page break]
time. To make matters worse the telephone is out of order so that I can’t ring up my friends, & furthermore it keeps tinkeling & ringing in a most tantalizing way & when I pick up the receiver, there’s nothing. It was quite alright too until the post office engineers came round poking for some mythical fault, & now its out of order with a vengeance. Incidentally its curious how everyone seems to come to the door between 9-30 & 10-30 am, just while I’m busy nursing & bathing Frances!
[underlined] Saturday [/underlined]
Feeling better now after an uneventful & sound night’s sleep.
Your letter this morning contained solemn warnings about invasion & advice on how to sink a submarine which I think is very good. Personally I don’t see that the Nazis can attempt invasion now that we are so much stronger until the Russians are well & truly beaten, which they are not yet, & even then I should have thought the
[page break]
Germans needed a little time to get their breath back. However I suppose we mustn’t put anything past them. Today a note has come from the Town Hall to say that an indoor shelter is now available & will I kindly send £7 within a week or else … I suppose I’d better stump up. If I can’t manage to put it together myself, Peter will be down at the beginning of September & can do it for me. I sigh to think of spoiling the sittingroom,’s beauty, but it will be nice to have somewhere to put Frances with complete confidence.
On the strength of your warning & also because I’ve been meaning to do it for ages, I popped her in her gasmask this morning before the bath. She was quite unperturbed & I kept her there for 5 minutes while I pumped. She seemed to enjoy it, so that’s a blessing. Next time I’ll put on my mask at the
[page break]
same time so that she gets used to seeing me in it, beastly tho’ it is.
I’m glad you haven’t read Gone with the Wind, because I think you should enjoy it, I certainly did. I send it off to you forthwith. I rather agree with your comments on “Child of Misfortune” though parts of it I did find really penetrating. I’m glad you think it is the authors who write hot air & not us who are deficient mentally, I’ve often wondered.
As you say you are very much out of touch with the news, I am sending yesterday’s Telegraph which contains the dope about Churchill’s & Roosevelt’s meeting. Also NSSN.
Good luck in your exams, written & oral. I can’t imagine you gave the Squadron Commander your “usual poor show of yourself.” You know they all like you best. Anyway I do.
I love you always, my dearest. Look after yourself
[underlined] Ursula [/underlined]