Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Thanks him for his letter and glad he is settling down. Writes of an acquaintance who lost an arm just before he getting into the action at the front and how he is finding it difficult adjusting. She also writes of her social activities and their daughter.

1941-11-05

Six page handwritten letter

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EValentineUMValentineJRM411105

No 4.
Lido
5.11.41
Darling Johnny,
Thank you for your letter of the 3rd. I’m glad you are settling down satisfactorily and like the place. It must make all the difference to life. You didn’t mention receiving my letter posted on Sunday containing the £1, but I hope you will receive it safely in due course.
I quite enjoyed going out to dinner with the Milligans last night. It was certainly a good dinner, oxtail soup, boiled chicken, & raspberries, all from Harrods I gathered. Their flat is very nice and compact, tho’ I didn’t like their furniture much, it was
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rather what I expected, quite expensive but ordinary and not in the best of taste. However it’s a jolly little flat and I envy them it. They are a nice couple but very simple souls. Angus seems to me a typical public school boy, decent, good at games but very shallow mentally, & I think he’s having an awful struggle adjusting himself to his disability. There was one very characteristic photo in their bedroom, of Angus in short pants displaying his mighty chest & terrific muscle development – exactly like the photos of strong men advertising someone or other’s nerve tonic or dumb-bells or something. He must obviously have been very proud
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of his body to have a photo like that taken, signed & hung in his bedroom, and it must be bitter for him to be disabled so young in life. What makes it doubly hard, I gathered from Betty, is that he lost his arm [underlined] before [/underlined] they actually went into action, & that seems to prey on his mind. The train in which his battalion were brought to the front line was bombed as they were unloading at the destination, & he was in the corridor just getting out when it happened. Apparently very few of the rest of them got back at all, so he was lucky, yet he can’t forget that he hadn’t actually fought when it happened. Since he’s been at home, he’s been reading, [deleted] but [/deleted] a lot (which he’d never done before) but you can
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imagine that he’s very desultory and random, he hasn’t the intellectual depth that would give direction & purpose to a more intelligent man (you for instance) & so I can imagine that its pretty hard for him to reorientate himself & lay hold on life again. Betty is a cheerful soul & keeps his spirits up, but she can’t help him much there [deleted] either [/deleted] since she’s hardly what you’d call an intellectual either. I shall be interested to see what happens to them in years to come.
My social whirl becomes giddier & giddier (talk about Hendon’s social climber – it must be me after all!) Tomorrow I’m going out to tea with Mary Simmonds to meet Betty Wilshire (now Mrs Hubbard) who was in my form at school & is in town just now. You
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remember she wrote to me when Frances was born – her small sister is at school with Ann. Her own daughter is 21 months old now, & I’m very much looking forward to seeing Betty again.
And on Friday I am to play squash with some girl from the Ambulance Station – life’s one long whirl! I wish you’d come home on leave again, if only for 48 hours, as I need another leave card to make up 1lb of preserves. See what you can do about it, will you?
I have sent off a parcel today containing the gloves you asked for –
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what a shameless set of companions you must have to pinch your gloves like that. I also included a couple of pairs of socks & your slippers in case they should be useful now you’re in outside billets. The rest, pants & other socks are not aired & mended yet, I’ll send them later.
Thank God I’ve finished this writing pad at last!
I’ve finished reading “Kabloona” the book about the Eskimos, & found it most interesting. Do you need anything to read?
All my love to you, my dearest one. Come back to me soon!
Yours always
Ursula.