Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

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Title

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Description

Writes that she has just seen film Target for Tonight which she found real and vivid. Mentions seeing a colleague of his in sergeants uniform and pilots wings. Talks of books and Christmas presents. Reports seeing newsreel of Churchill's meeting with Roosevelt and milk rationing. Sends love.

Date

1941-08-19

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Language

Format

Four page handwritten letter

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.

Contributor

Identifier

EValentineUMValentineJRM410819-01

Transcription

Start of transcription
[inserted] Do you still correspond regularly with your people? I haven’t heard from them since you left. [/inserted]
Lido.
August 19th
My darling Johnnie,
I have just come back from seeing “Target for Tonight.” You ought to see it if it comes your way. I found it very stirring more stirring than I liked, as a matter of fact, because I kept envisaging you among the fellows on the screen. The shots of the Wellington sailing along over banks of cloud were really lovely, & so I thought were the shots of the German anti-aircraft crews in action, all in dim silhouette. But the whole thing was just a bit too real and vivid, & brought the shape of things to come painfully near. But it does seem a marvellous organisation and a topping atmosphere.
Guess whom I saw when I came out of the flicks? Pestonjee Bomonjee, or whatever his name was, that little Indian bloke who was at the Queen’s at Aberystwyth, not in your flight, I believe. He is now resplendent with sergeant’s stripes and his
[page break]
pilot’s wings, all glaringly new. I wish I had spoken to him, but when I was sure who it was he was out of reach. I should think he’s just qualified & is on his first leave. He looked terribly proud of himself!
I sent off the Left Book Club volume on agriculture this morning, with a note included. Barbara has just got “Bomber’s Moon” out of the Times Book Club library with a view to buying a copy for Mother’s christmas [sic] present. It seems early days to be thinking of christmas [sic], but with mails as they are at present we shall have to post soon. “Bomber’s Moon” is about London in the blitz. It is by Negley Farson, of all people, & illustrated with pencil sketches by Tom Purvis, & seems to be a pretty good book. Barbara has also presented me, for no particular reason, with a copy of
[page break]
“The White [deleted]Cif [/deleted] Cliffs”, a long poem by Alice Duer Miller, which I shall probably be sending to you after I’ve read it. The other book, of course, has to be returned to the library.
At the flicks today I saw the newsreel of Churchill & Roosevelt meeting, it was very interesting. Fancy publishing all about them meeting before Churchill was safely back on terrafirma! It seems a bit risky to me, however he arrived in London this morning, after visiting Iceland on his way home, so all’s well that ends well.
We have had to register for milk today, so it looks as if my days of unlimited milk-swigging are numbered. Children under 5 get 1 pt a day, but Barbara heard an awful rumour that grown-ups are to get 7/8 of a pint of [underlined] dried [/underlined] milk per [underlined] week [/underlined]. It hardly seems possibly, and I
[page break]
sincerely hope it wont [sic] turn out to be as bad as that. It would mean you never had any for cooking, puddings, porridge etc. & barely enough for a cup of tea per day. Surely they haven’t slaughtered dairy cattle to that extent!
[underlined] Wed. a.m [/underlined]
Two letters from you today. Congratulations on your direct hit! Jolly good show. I shouldn’t let these unpleasant pilots cow me if I were in your place, tho’ I realise it must be very nasty. I return Royle’s letter herewith. I suppose we’ll be lucky if we get 10/- for Jane, what an amazing flair Royle has for beating about the bush!
I’m afraid if the expectation of a letter from me means so much to you you must often be sadly disappointed. I’m so often in a rush to catch the noon post. However you know that I love & long for you even more than you do for me – oh yes I do!
We opened your pot of honey this morning, on your express instructions & its lovely. Also when the men came to mend the gas stove I told them not to after all – what an obedient wife you have!
All my love darling, Ursula

Collection

Citation

Ursula Valentine, “Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19609.

Item Relations

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