Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Title
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Description
Writes of receiving parcel and asks if he can get soap flakes in Isle of Man as they are unobtainable in London, mentions problems with photography and plans for future photos. Concludes with family gossip. Enquires about his pipe and tobacco supply and mentions contacting RAF accounts. Catches up with family news and mentions her agricultural studies and other books she is reading. Writes of war situation and hopes there will be no bad news. Concludes with comments about Mrs Stenzel.
Creator
Date
1941-08-29
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.
Contributor
Identifier
EValentineUMValentineJRM410829-01
Transcription
[underlined] No 13 [/underlined]
Lido,
Friday, 29.8.41.
My darling,
I believe I forgot to thank you for two parcels which arrived on [deleted] Thurs [/deleted] Wednesday, containing your notebooks etc, and your washing plus another lovely jar of honey. Thank you ever so much for that, dearest, it will be greatly appreciated. While we are on the subject of the place & plenty on the I.O.M., would you see sometime when you are near the shops if you can get me some soapflakes, preferably Lux or Sylvan. They are unobtainable here now, and since I do washing most days of the week, I definitely miss them. They are not heavy if you want to send them by post, & I can do with any amount. Barbara is intending to write & thank you for the films. Photography is held up temporarily because her lens is jammed in the flange of the enlarger, but she has taken it
[page break]
up to town today to get that remedied, so perhaps we shall be able to shoot Frances soon. We want to take photos of her in the bath, & in her vest (she looks sweetest of all in her vest, I think) as well as laughing, solemn & crying ones. If you ever come across any supersensitive or panatonic films they will always be much appreciated, but now we have at least got some to be going on with.
Auntie Con came for the day on Wednesday, and contrary to custom everything went swimmingly & a good time was had by all. She is one of these spinster aunts who generally continue to get offended or hurt whenever they come to visit, for which reason they are held at arms length as far as courtesy will allow, which makes them more spinsterish than ever. It’s a vicious circle, but this time at any rate everything went fine with Frances as the main attraction. Auntie Con kept house for Mother when I was born, with the result that Mother got up far too soon after the birth because she just couldn't bear it any longer!
By the way, are you smoking your pipe at all now, & if so are you getting short of tobacco? Let me know in time, because tobacco is more difficult, if anything, than cigarettes. I have written to the Accounts Dept of the RAF today to point out that they have omitted to pay my extra 3/6 London allowance. It will be quite a nice windfall if & when it does arrive. I had a note from your Mother this morning thanking for the photo. Apparently Leslie, Stewart & Irene all got leave together a week or so ago. They all get far more than you do!
I'm sorry Freddy Flea is persisting in his attentions. Perhaps you'd better get some Keatings! Or shall I send some in the next parcel? I'm going to do your washing tomorrow & probably shan't post it till Monday. I have started on the British Agriculture treatise & got through the preface so far. I perceive that it is a volume full of food for thought & must be devoured slowly & carefully, so I will keep on with “Tale of Two Cities” concurrently when I am not feeling intelligent enough to take in the other. I'm looking forward to reading it all the same. It's a jolly good show that the resistance in Iran has come to an end. This seems to be one of the few, probably the only, campaign in this war when we have acted in time & in sufficient force, & it is certainly vitally important for us. I can hardly dare to hope that things really are as good as they seem there, I keep expecting to hear of some nasty snag. Perhaps Germany will decide she must take Turkey after all & the Turks will give in & then we'll have a bloody battle over there after all. But perhaps not.
There's a very marked difference in Mrs S since she's been here. She laughs more, doesn't look so worried & doesn't think & talk so much about her unpleasant experiences in Holloway & Port Erin. She has gone up to town today to Bloomsbury House & the American Consulate & also to a Nat. Gallery concert of Myra Hess & Isolde Menzes with Ba. Do her lots of good!
All my love to my dearest Johnnie - Ursula
Lido,
Friday, 29.8.41.
My darling,
I believe I forgot to thank you for two parcels which arrived on [deleted] Thurs [/deleted] Wednesday, containing your notebooks etc, and your washing plus another lovely jar of honey. Thank you ever so much for that, dearest, it will be greatly appreciated. While we are on the subject of the place & plenty on the I.O.M., would you see sometime when you are near the shops if you can get me some soapflakes, preferably Lux or Sylvan. They are unobtainable here now, and since I do washing most days of the week, I definitely miss them. They are not heavy if you want to send them by post, & I can do with any amount. Barbara is intending to write & thank you for the films. Photography is held up temporarily because her lens is jammed in the flange of the enlarger, but she has taken it
[page break]
up to town today to get that remedied, so perhaps we shall be able to shoot Frances soon. We want to take photos of her in the bath, & in her vest (she looks sweetest of all in her vest, I think) as well as laughing, solemn & crying ones. If you ever come across any supersensitive or panatonic films they will always be much appreciated, but now we have at least got some to be going on with.
Auntie Con came for the day on Wednesday, and contrary to custom everything went swimmingly & a good time was had by all. She is one of these spinster aunts who generally continue to get offended or hurt whenever they come to visit, for which reason they are held at arms length as far as courtesy will allow, which makes them more spinsterish than ever. It’s a vicious circle, but this time at any rate everything went fine with Frances as the main attraction. Auntie Con kept house for Mother when I was born, with the result that Mother got up far too soon after the birth because she just couldn't bear it any longer!
By the way, are you smoking your pipe at all now, & if so are you getting short of tobacco? Let me know in time, because tobacco is more difficult, if anything, than cigarettes. I have written to the Accounts Dept of the RAF today to point out that they have omitted to pay my extra 3/6 London allowance. It will be quite a nice windfall if & when it does arrive. I had a note from your Mother this morning thanking for the photo. Apparently Leslie, Stewart & Irene all got leave together a week or so ago. They all get far more than you do!
I'm sorry Freddy Flea is persisting in his attentions. Perhaps you'd better get some Keatings! Or shall I send some in the next parcel? I'm going to do your washing tomorrow & probably shan't post it till Monday. I have started on the British Agriculture treatise & got through the preface so far. I perceive that it is a volume full of food for thought & must be devoured slowly & carefully, so I will keep on with “Tale of Two Cities” concurrently when I am not feeling intelligent enough to take in the other. I'm looking forward to reading it all the same. It's a jolly good show that the resistance in Iran has come to an end. This seems to be one of the few, probably the only, campaign in this war when we have acted in time & in sufficient force, & it is certainly vitally important for us. I can hardly dare to hope that things really are as good as they seem there, I keep expecting to hear of some nasty snag. Perhaps Germany will decide she must take Turkey after all & the Turks will give in & then we'll have a bloody battle over there after all. But perhaps not.
There's a very marked difference in Mrs S since she's been here. She laughs more, doesn't look so worried & doesn't think & talk so much about her unpleasant experiences in Holloway & Port Erin. She has gone up to town today to Bloomsbury House & the American Consulate & also to a Nat. Gallery concert of Myra Hess & Isolde Menzes with Ba. Do her lots of good!
All my love to my dearest Johnnie - 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/19618.
Item Relations
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