Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Title
Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine
Description
Writes of shopping in the West End, getting him a birthday present and failing to find something for daughter Frances. Continues with description of activities, friends/family and baby news. Continues next day with no letter from him but hopes for news of his commission soon.
Creator
Date
1942-04-09
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.
Identifier
EValentineUMValentineJRM420409
Transcription
No 7 (I think) Lido 9.4.42
My darling, I have had a day in the West End today making sundry purchases which as usual turned out to be more than expected.. You will be pleased to hear that I've bought you a birthday present (even tho' you think I can't remember the date!) which I will post off to you on Monday. I do hope you'll approve. I couldn't find a thing for Frances's birthday present, so I am going to make a concoction from cotton reels & an empty toilet roll, & put the difference into savings~! I did buy one thing for her today, a pair of gum-boots, size 8, I thought it a wise investment they were only 5/11, & will soon be unobtainable.
[page break]
Of course she won't use them probably till the winter after next, when we hope that peace will have broken out, but rubber will be hard to come by long after that. I have spent this evening making her a pair of dungarees out of the remains of the bathroom curtain material – they look quite jolly & will save her white woolly ones from too much crawling.
By the way I managed to get one of the new utility lighters today. It looks a very handy little thing, & I thought I'd keep it by me for emergencies. But if you would rather have it than your Ronson I'll send it to you. Vera Bowack has written accepting my invitation for tomorrow night – Norman has not
[page break]
got any leave, & she couldn't find a room in a hotel. It will be nice to have her here. A parcel arrived for Frances today from Mother, containing more useful & dainty garments for Small. She is a lucky girl! The diphtheria dose was administered yesterday & doesn't seem to have affected her at all adversely. I think it upset me more than it did her, to see them sticking needles into her wee arm! There was no letter from you today, so I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow. It has poured with rain all day long, wretched weather for shopping.
[page break]
[underlined] Friday [/underlined] Still no letter but a parcel of dirty socks arrived, with no note enclosed. Perhaps there'll be something at 4 o'clock. I made Frances's green dungarees last night & she is wearing them today. She looks 100% tough but they will save her white woollies – she still shows no bad effects of the diphtheria treatment, except a wee red patch on her arm. I do hope I shall hear from you soon, & that there'll be some good news about a commission for you. By the way, what is your telephone number, in case I wanted to ring in an emergency? I won't make a habit of it!
All my love to you darling one Ursula
My darling, I have had a day in the West End today making sundry purchases which as usual turned out to be more than expected.. You will be pleased to hear that I've bought you a birthday present (even tho' you think I can't remember the date!) which I will post off to you on Monday. I do hope you'll approve. I couldn't find a thing for Frances's birthday present, so I am going to make a concoction from cotton reels & an empty toilet roll, & put the difference into savings~! I did buy one thing for her today, a pair of gum-boots, size 8, I thought it a wise investment they were only 5/11, & will soon be unobtainable.
[page break]
Of course she won't use them probably till the winter after next, when we hope that peace will have broken out, but rubber will be hard to come by long after that. I have spent this evening making her a pair of dungarees out of the remains of the bathroom curtain material – they look quite jolly & will save her white woolly ones from too much crawling.
By the way I managed to get one of the new utility lighters today. It looks a very handy little thing, & I thought I'd keep it by me for emergencies. But if you would rather have it than your Ronson I'll send it to you. Vera Bowack has written accepting my invitation for tomorrow night – Norman has not
[page break]
got any leave, & she couldn't find a room in a hotel. It will be nice to have her here. A parcel arrived for Frances today from Mother, containing more useful & dainty garments for Small. She is a lucky girl! The diphtheria dose was administered yesterday & doesn't seem to have affected her at all adversely. I think it upset me more than it did her, to see them sticking needles into her wee arm! There was no letter from you today, so I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow. It has poured with rain all day long, wretched weather for shopping.
[page break]
[underlined] Friday [/underlined] Still no letter but a parcel of dirty socks arrived, with no note enclosed. Perhaps there'll be something at 4 o'clock. I made Frances's green dungarees last night & she is wearing them today. She looks 100% tough but they will save her white woollies – she still shows no bad effects of the diphtheria treatment, except a wee red patch on her arm. I do hope I shall hear from you soon, & that there'll be some good news about a commission for you. By the way, what is your telephone number, in case I wanted to ring in an emergency? I won't make a habit of it!
All my love to you darling one Ursula
Collection
Citation
Ursula Valentine, “Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 26, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19864.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.