Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula
Title
Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula
Description
Reacts positively to his news that he is getting more to eat and is feeling better. Says she hopes he should be receiving food parcel from overseas soon. Catches up with news of family and friends and says she is complying with his suggestion that she only writes once a week. Mentions finances and that she has ordered material for winter clothes as well as other domestic news. Talks of seeing "First of the Few" at cinema as well as other activities, Concludes saying she is enclosing photograph of Frances and of gardening and other gossip.
Creator
Date
1942-09-20
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two page typewritten 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
EValentineUMValentineJRM420920
Transcription
To Sergeant J.R.M. Valentine
British Prisoner of War No. 450
Stalag Luft III, Germany
[postmark] GEPRÜFT 32 [/postmark] [inserted] 12/10 A 9/16 [/inserted]
From Mrs. J.R.M. Valentine,
Lido, Tenterden Grove,
Hendon, London N.W. 4.
Sunday September 20th 1942
24
My dearest Johnnie,
Last Tuesday I received your letter No. 13 of 4th August (postmark 20.8.42!), and was most tremendously cheered and relieved to hear that you are now getting more to eat and are feeling so much better. Your “earlier gloomy missives”, as you call them, certainly did upset me rather, as was only natural since I love you more than anything else and could hardly be expected to receive with equanimity the news that you are so weak from hunger. Still it is grand to know that the situation is somewhat restored now and I and pray it won’t relapse again. Perhaps you will be receiving some parcels from overseas soon too. Ann rang up last night to say they had received a postcard from you, with cheerful references to Leslie on it. Apparently he is still here waiting. Your mother and father and Ann are coming to tea with me next Saturday – I shall have to get busy on cake-making and put up some sort of a show. Thanks for instructions re Irene’s wedding present, the date isn’t fixed yet but is likely to be near Christmas. She has now been posted up north, and the gent is on sick leave after a flying accident, I don’t think it was serious. I really must ask them what he does. As you suggested that I should only write once a week for a while, I have done so this week, but it does seem a terrible long time since I wrote last – it is the nearest I get to conversing with you and I miss it! I couldn’t help smiling at your remark that you hoped I am managing financially “on [underlined] our own [/underlined] income”. Poor Johnnie, how that subject does worry you! But cheer up, I haven’t touched the allowance and have recently transferred a lot more of it into bonds. And now I must confess that I have been very wicked this week and ordered a Donegal tweed costume to be made to measure for me by Mr Turner. It is a lovely misty blue-grey tweed with a very thin red overcheck in it, it suits me well and should wear for ever. I do not intend to wear it much this winter, I am keeping it for when we have our home in the country. It will just about drain my P.O. account, but then later on there won’t be any more really goodtweeds [sic] like this and also all our cash will be needed for the home. Do you think I am very wicked? I hoe not. Mr. Turner is being called up into factory work, so it was now or never. He has very gallantly knocked off a couple of guineas off the price, in your honour I suppose, so that it will come to about 9 guineas. It seemed an awful lot to me, but you can’t even get a decent ready-made for that now. Anyway I am very thrilled about it – it is the first time I have had anything made to measure – and Heaven knows I need it!
I have been having quite a busy week again. On Monday Mrs. Hazard came to spend the night as her husband was fire-watching; on Tuesday I had to go to a meeting of local Savings Group secretaries at which the are subcommittee was elected. Personally I didn’t know a soul there, but a few of them did, and all proposed, seconded and elected each other on to the committee. Since it is quite impossible to see what the committee is going to [underlined] do [/underlined], I wish them joy of it! Mrs. Lloyd, from next door, very kindly came and sat in the house while I was out, and say she will do it any time – pity she didn’t that time you were on leave and we wanted to go dancing, do you remember? We went to bed and read instead!
[page break]
On Wednesday I went to the Odeon with Catherine Mair to see an excellent film of Leslie Howard’s “The First of the Few”, the story of R.J. Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire. You would have enjoyed it, I am sure. On Thursday Frances and I went to tea with the vicar’s wife. She is a very vigorous and capable woman, she has to be since she runs that large house, big garden,quantities [sic] of hens, ducks and rabbits, a big bounding sheep-dog and her three sons aged 9 and twins of 8, not to mention the vicar, all single-handed. I like her very well, and she is proposing to have these informal tea-parties every Wednesday for wives of men in the forces. One woman’s husband is still missing from Dieppe. I hope to go quite often. Frances behaved very charmingly and everyone fell for her as usual. When Mrs Boyd let the ducks out to go for a swim in the pond, Frances chased them all back into their house again and proceeded to dabble in the pond herself!
Yesterday Eileen Johnson came to tea. Poor girl, she still has no news of Frank, but is invincibly cheerful and hopeful about him. I do hope he turns up somewhere. She has knitted another dress for Frances and a vest out of the wool I gave her last time, and this time took away more wool for socks. She seems to enjoy doing it and it is a great help for me. This afternoon Frances and I are going out to tea with Marnie who is up in town for a few days. Marnie wants to ask my advice, she says, on winter clothing for her small son! Barbara has gone to a concert at the Albert Hall.
The photo I enclose today was taken in Parsons Street and shows Frances in her yellow autumn outfit. When she has done something she knows she shouldn’t, - which is quite often -, she generally comes to me very solemn and round-eyed, saying “Ooh” in an accusing tone of voice and shows me what she has done or leads me to the scene of the crime. It doesn’t occur to her not to do the naughty thing, in fact sometimes she even starts saying “Ooh” while she is contemplating and committing the crime. She has now got as far as sitting on the potty on the floor by herself, and there is always a lot of jumping up and down and inspecting progress, and she walks round and round it like a little dog before finally coming to rest and getting on with the job. You would love to see her dancing too. Gay music often starts her off and her dancing either takes the form of standing in one spot and jogging up and down from the knees to time, or else going round and round in small circles with arms outstretched, looking back over her shoulder until she gets so giddy that she falls down flat.
I have had about a dozen ripe tomatoes from the garden now and there are lots more green ones which may ripen yet. I have ordered some gooseberry and current bushes to put in at the top of the garden, because I don’t think it is worth while growing potatoes on such a small patch. Our blackberries are nearly over now, but they have been a grand crop. I am going to get a man in to prune [underlined] them [/underlined], the raspberries and roses were quite bad enough for me!
Do let me know whether or not you would like to make a rug for our future home, because I think I should be able to send the materials in the parcel which would go off at the end of the year. My old aunt Con wrote and offered to give up her sweet ration to you, which was nice of her but not necessary as I can get chocolate through the Red Cross. Ann also suggested it. The Neals asked specially to be remembered to you, they often enquire for your news. I had a letter from Mrs. Howie too, who said she would write to you herself. Iain has got a Shetland pony now. Do tell me what books you are reading – I have just read Fanny Burney’s “Evelina”, and really enjoyed it, it is a charming book. Otherwise, I am still ploughing on through my mediaeval history book, though I don’t read much at all. [inserted] [bookmark] GEPRÜFT 32 [/bookmark] [/inserted]
With all my love to you my dearest, Yours for always, Ursula
[page break]
British Prisoner of War No. 450
Stalag Luft III, Germany
[postmark] GEPRÜFT 32 [/postmark] [inserted] 12/10 A 9/16 [/inserted]
From Mrs. J.R.M. Valentine,
Lido, Tenterden Grove,
Hendon, London N.W. 4.
Sunday September 20th 1942
24
My dearest Johnnie,
Last Tuesday I received your letter No. 13 of 4th August (postmark 20.8.42!), and was most tremendously cheered and relieved to hear that you are now getting more to eat and are feeling so much better. Your “earlier gloomy missives”, as you call them, certainly did upset me rather, as was only natural since I love you more than anything else and could hardly be expected to receive with equanimity the news that you are so weak from hunger. Still it is grand to know that the situation is somewhat restored now and I and pray it won’t relapse again. Perhaps you will be receiving some parcels from overseas soon too. Ann rang up last night to say they had received a postcard from you, with cheerful references to Leslie on it. Apparently he is still here waiting. Your mother and father and Ann are coming to tea with me next Saturday – I shall have to get busy on cake-making and put up some sort of a show. Thanks for instructions re Irene’s wedding present, the date isn’t fixed yet but is likely to be near Christmas. She has now been posted up north, and the gent is on sick leave after a flying accident, I don’t think it was serious. I really must ask them what he does. As you suggested that I should only write once a week for a while, I have done so this week, but it does seem a terrible long time since I wrote last – it is the nearest I get to conversing with you and I miss it! I couldn’t help smiling at your remark that you hoped I am managing financially “on [underlined] our own [/underlined] income”. Poor Johnnie, how that subject does worry you! But cheer up, I haven’t touched the allowance and have recently transferred a lot more of it into bonds. And now I must confess that I have been very wicked this week and ordered a Donegal tweed costume to be made to measure for me by Mr Turner. It is a lovely misty blue-grey tweed with a very thin red overcheck in it, it suits me well and should wear for ever. I do not intend to wear it much this winter, I am keeping it for when we have our home in the country. It will just about drain my P.O. account, but then later on there won’t be any more really goodtweeds [sic] like this and also all our cash will be needed for the home. Do you think I am very wicked? I hoe not. Mr. Turner is being called up into factory work, so it was now or never. He has very gallantly knocked off a couple of guineas off the price, in your honour I suppose, so that it will come to about 9 guineas. It seemed an awful lot to me, but you can’t even get a decent ready-made for that now. Anyway I am very thrilled about it – it is the first time I have had anything made to measure – and Heaven knows I need it!
I have been having quite a busy week again. On Monday Mrs. Hazard came to spend the night as her husband was fire-watching; on Tuesday I had to go to a meeting of local Savings Group secretaries at which the are subcommittee was elected. Personally I didn’t know a soul there, but a few of them did, and all proposed, seconded and elected each other on to the committee. Since it is quite impossible to see what the committee is going to [underlined] do [/underlined], I wish them joy of it! Mrs. Lloyd, from next door, very kindly came and sat in the house while I was out, and say she will do it any time – pity she didn’t that time you were on leave and we wanted to go dancing, do you remember? We went to bed and read instead!
[page break]
On Wednesday I went to the Odeon with Catherine Mair to see an excellent film of Leslie Howard’s “The First of the Few”, the story of R.J. Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire. You would have enjoyed it, I am sure. On Thursday Frances and I went to tea with the vicar’s wife. She is a very vigorous and capable woman, she has to be since she runs that large house, big garden,quantities [sic] of hens, ducks and rabbits, a big bounding sheep-dog and her three sons aged 9 and twins of 8, not to mention the vicar, all single-handed. I like her very well, and she is proposing to have these informal tea-parties every Wednesday for wives of men in the forces. One woman’s husband is still missing from Dieppe. I hope to go quite often. Frances behaved very charmingly and everyone fell for her as usual. When Mrs Boyd let the ducks out to go for a swim in the pond, Frances chased them all back into their house again and proceeded to dabble in the pond herself!
Yesterday Eileen Johnson came to tea. Poor girl, she still has no news of Frank, but is invincibly cheerful and hopeful about him. I do hope he turns up somewhere. She has knitted another dress for Frances and a vest out of the wool I gave her last time, and this time took away more wool for socks. She seems to enjoy doing it and it is a great help for me. This afternoon Frances and I are going out to tea with Marnie who is up in town for a few days. Marnie wants to ask my advice, she says, on winter clothing for her small son! Barbara has gone to a concert at the Albert Hall.
The photo I enclose today was taken in Parsons Street and shows Frances in her yellow autumn outfit. When she has done something she knows she shouldn’t, - which is quite often -, she generally comes to me very solemn and round-eyed, saying “Ooh” in an accusing tone of voice and shows me what she has done or leads me to the scene of the crime. It doesn’t occur to her not to do the naughty thing, in fact sometimes she even starts saying “Ooh” while she is contemplating and committing the crime. She has now got as far as sitting on the potty on the floor by herself, and there is always a lot of jumping up and down and inspecting progress, and she walks round and round it like a little dog before finally coming to rest and getting on with the job. You would love to see her dancing too. Gay music often starts her off and her dancing either takes the form of standing in one spot and jogging up and down from the knees to time, or else going round and round in small circles with arms outstretched, looking back over her shoulder until she gets so giddy that she falls down flat.
I have had about a dozen ripe tomatoes from the garden now and there are lots more green ones which may ripen yet. I have ordered some gooseberry and current bushes to put in at the top of the garden, because I don’t think it is worth while growing potatoes on such a small patch. Our blackberries are nearly over now, but they have been a grand crop. I am going to get a man in to prune [underlined] them [/underlined], the raspberries and roses were quite bad enough for me!
Do let me know whether or not you would like to make a rug for our future home, because I think I should be able to send the materials in the parcel which would go off at the end of the year. My old aunt Con wrote and offered to give up her sweet ration to you, which was nice of her but not necessary as I can get chocolate through the Red Cross. Ann also suggested it. The Neals asked specially to be remembered to you, they often enquire for your news. I had a letter from Mrs. Howie too, who said she would write to you herself. Iain has got a Shetland pony now. Do tell me what books you are reading – I have just read Fanny Burney’s “Evelina”, and really enjoyed it, it is a charming book. Otherwise, I am still ploughing on through my mediaeval history book, though I don’t read much at all. [inserted] [bookmark] GEPRÜFT 32 [/bookmark] [/inserted]
With all my love to you my dearest, Yours for always, Ursula
[page break]
Collection
Citation
Ursula Valentine, “Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 19, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/19978.
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