Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Replies to his previous letter and hope the weather will be good so he can finish his high level bombing training. Encloses latest photograph of daughter Frances and writes of laundry and books. Continues with mention of fire watch schedule and concludes with other gossip.

1941-09-15

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.

EValentineUMValentineJRM410915

Start of transcription
[underlined] No 29 [/underlined]
Lido
Monday 15th September
My dearest one,
Thanks for your letter No 30 of Thursday. You sound really worn out and fed up, and I just long to have you here for a thorough rest and to enjoy some of the pleasant things of life again. My heart aches for you, Johnny darling, specially if they do keep you on longer to get your high level bombing done, but when we do at last meet again it will be all the more wonderful. I’m praying for good weather this week, but I must say it doesn’t look too promising here today. I suppose you’re doing your gunnery exams today & I’m keeping thumbs up for you. I quite understand that you’ll have to miss writing on some days, and please don’t
[page break]
flog yourself when you come home late and tired. If you’re busy a p.c. is plenty just to let me know you’re O.K. & not even that if you’re too tired. I hate to think of your eyes aching – how I long to be with you to comfort you!
I enclose the latest photos of Frances which I should like to have back sometime – when you come. I’m not sending back the last consignment of socks in the hope that you will come soon. Today a parcel of books arrived, “Child of Misfortune” “White Cliffs” & the LBC book. I wonder how you liked “White Cliffs”. It would be an advantage if you could send as much of
[page break]
your dirty washing in advance as possible, so that I could have it finished when you come & not have to spend time on it when you’re here. I want to have every precious moment with you. It’s seems awful that we feel like this after 2 months when the Moors & Coulsons have been separated for 2 years, but I suppose if you were as far away as that we should both just feel numb, and not long for each other as intensely as we do now. It’s amazing how people adjust themselves to circumstances.
Mr Greenish has kindly arranged the fire
[page break]
watching rota so that everybody gets 2 clear nights between duties, & has also very thoughtfully put me on the 1st shift always (alert to midnight) because I have the baby. Decent of him, wasn’t it?
I’m sending off Pc NS&N today with no letter in it as I wanted to send you the photos.
I do hope, for your sake [inserted] even [/inserted] more than for mine, that you do get a long leave and soon. Norman is a lucky bounder, everything pans out right for him.
Dorothy went up for a couple of hours in a Hudson the other day & hopped over to Wales on a test flight. Join the WAAF & see England! (sorry, [underlined] Britain. [/underlined]
All my love to you, my own dear husband, Frances & I are longing for you
Yours always
Ursula.