Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Title
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Description
Writes about book she has read and gardening as well as catching up with family/friends news. Mentions Australian political news and the time taken for mail to reach India where her parents are. Continues with more war news and hopes weather will be good so he can get on with his high level bombing training. Mentions buy rabbits to augment meat supply.
Creator
Date
1941-08-26
Temporal Coverage
Language
Type
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.
Contributor
Identifier
EValentineUMValentineJRM410826
Transcription
Start of transcription
[underlined] No. 11 [/underlined]
Lido,
Tuesdsay Aug. 26th
Darling Johnny,
There is nothing to reply to, today being Tuesday, still as Auntie Con is coming tomorrow & I shall be busy I had better write this evening without waiting for the letter which I devoutly hope will come tomorrow. It is very regrettable that there is no Sunday mail, I do so miss your letter on Tuesdays.
I have just read “the Thin Blue Line” which I propose to send to Mother with your love for Christmas. IO think she will find it interesting tho’ of course it deals more with pilots than observers. All the chaps in the story get commissions without any difficulty, tho the few observers who are mentioned are Sergeants & don’t seem much good at navigating at that!
We have been gardening again this evening, and as the peas are now finished I cleared
[page break]
them away and dug over that patch. Mrs Stenzel continues steadily weeding the onions & carrots, & its beginning to look better. I’m afraid she won’t stay much longer than the beginning of next week, & is waiting for a reply from this school she is probably going to. It’s a real pity she does such a lot of small jobs for me, including mending & dull things like that. Besides she’s interesting to talk to.
I have also just got a Fougasse book for my people, called “Jotsam”. It’s just a lot of his drawings, some of them are very funny, & I know Mother likes them.
The navy cardigan she sent for me which arrived today is an awfully good fit and suits me well, I think. It’s very warm too & will be very useful I expect. I hope you’ll like it.
I wonder what all this business is about in Australia,
[page break]
where the Labour party seem to be making things difficult for Mr Menzies. Of course we know so little about their internal politics that it is impossible to judge, still on the face of it it [sic] looks as tho’ they are playing at party politics while the far East is about to flare up, which would be in the worst possible taste.
I have heard that the airmail to India via U.S.A arrives punctually & regularly in about 3 weeks, so altho’ it costs 5/- 1/2 oz I have sent Mother one letter that way enclosing the photo of you & Frances, as I should so like her to have that one & the Japanese may start a war anytime now & spoil that air route as well.
It seems that things are going alright in Iran, which is a blessing it will be a great relief when that is secured.
Great thrill in the National Savings Group! Mr & Mrs Noyelle have each paid in 15/- & today
[page break]
I got certificates in blank from the P.O to issue to them, & went round this evening armed with certificate books, address cards, forms, counterparts & all the rest, only to find they were out. They always are! They are the worst family of all to corner, tho’ they pay up handsomely.
Must go to bed now. How I wish you were going to be there as well! I do so hate to think of you living under such rotten conditions. Anyway I pray that the weather may be good enough for you to get your high level bombing done without having to stay on longer than the 2 months, which already seems quite interminable.
By the way, I saw an advert in a shop window of a pair of rabbits for sale. It didn’t say how much, but I rather like the idea of keeping them to augment the meat supply. What do you think? They’d have to be securely penned in of course. I might try to find out about it anyway, tho’ I’d hate the idea of killing & skinning the blighters myself!
[underlined] Wed [/underlined]
Thanks so much for the films which arrived this morning. Barbara is longing to shoot the baby already. [inserted] NC = non-curling, applied to all films which are the ordinary slow grade [/inserted]
The Morrison shelter also came – what a bag of tricks! I think I shall wait till Peter comes on 6th Sept its too heavy to do on my own or with Ba. Do hope your cold clears up soon & restores your sense of taste. All my love Ursula.
[underlined] No. 11 [/underlined]
Lido,
Tuesdsay Aug. 26th
Darling Johnny,
There is nothing to reply to, today being Tuesday, still as Auntie Con is coming tomorrow & I shall be busy I had better write this evening without waiting for the letter which I devoutly hope will come tomorrow. It is very regrettable that there is no Sunday mail, I do so miss your letter on Tuesdays.
I have just read “the Thin Blue Line” which I propose to send to Mother with your love for Christmas. IO think she will find it interesting tho’ of course it deals more with pilots than observers. All the chaps in the story get commissions without any difficulty, tho the few observers who are mentioned are Sergeants & don’t seem much good at navigating at that!
We have been gardening again this evening, and as the peas are now finished I cleared
[page break]
them away and dug over that patch. Mrs Stenzel continues steadily weeding the onions & carrots, & its beginning to look better. I’m afraid she won’t stay much longer than the beginning of next week, & is waiting for a reply from this school she is probably going to. It’s a real pity she does such a lot of small jobs for me, including mending & dull things like that. Besides she’s interesting to talk to.
I have also just got a Fougasse book for my people, called “Jotsam”. It’s just a lot of his drawings, some of them are very funny, & I know Mother likes them.
The navy cardigan she sent for me which arrived today is an awfully good fit and suits me well, I think. It’s very warm too & will be very useful I expect. I hope you’ll like it.
I wonder what all this business is about in Australia,
[page break]
where the Labour party seem to be making things difficult for Mr Menzies. Of course we know so little about their internal politics that it is impossible to judge, still on the face of it it [sic] looks as tho’ they are playing at party politics while the far East is about to flare up, which would be in the worst possible taste.
I have heard that the airmail to India via U.S.A arrives punctually & regularly in about 3 weeks, so altho’ it costs 5/- 1/2 oz I have sent Mother one letter that way enclosing the photo of you & Frances, as I should so like her to have that one & the Japanese may start a war anytime now & spoil that air route as well.
It seems that things are going alright in Iran, which is a blessing it will be a great relief when that is secured.
Great thrill in the National Savings Group! Mr & Mrs Noyelle have each paid in 15/- & today
[page break]
I got certificates in blank from the P.O to issue to them, & went round this evening armed with certificate books, address cards, forms, counterparts & all the rest, only to find they were out. They always are! They are the worst family of all to corner, tho’ they pay up handsomely.
Must go to bed now. How I wish you were going to be there as well! I do so hate to think of you living under such rotten conditions. Anyway I pray that the weather may be good enough for you to get your high level bombing done without having to stay on longer than the 2 months, which already seems quite interminable.
By the way, I saw an advert in a shop window of a pair of rabbits for sale. It didn’t say how much, but I rather like the idea of keeping them to augment the meat supply. What do you think? They’d have to be securely penned in of course. I might try to find out about it anyway, tho’ I’d hate the idea of killing & skinning the blighters myself!
[underlined] Wed [/underlined]
Thanks so much for the films which arrived this morning. Barbara is longing to shoot the baby already. [inserted] NC = non-curling, applied to all films which are the ordinary slow grade [/inserted]
The Morrison shelter also came – what a bag of tricks! I think I shall wait till Peter comes on 6th Sept its too heavy to do on my own or with Ba. Do hope your cold clears up soon & restores your sense of taste. All my love Ursula.
Collection
Citation
Ursula Valentine, “Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 18, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19616.
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