Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula

Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula

Describes garden of new house along with plans for future. and buying trees and plants. Writes of other daily activities; shopping and family plans for future and arrival of birthday presents.

1943-12-12

Two page typewritten letter

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To Sgt. J.R.M. Valentine,
British P/W No 488,
Stalag Luft III, Germany
From Mrs J.R.M. Valentine,
Felmersham, Bottrell’s Lane,
Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks.
Sunday, December 12th 1943.
My darling Johnnie,
Another busy week, starting off with the garden. Our garden at the back of the house starts off pretty wide (width of the house plus garage plus 6ft) and tapers till at the end it is about 30ft I should think. At this end Mr. Horswell has cut off a lump of what should have been the garden of this house and built his chicken run there, (it was all his, of course, he could do what he liked). Anyway I don’t like this view, and have decided to try and screen it off with fruit trees. So on Monday I bought three full size standard trees, 2 apples (Newtown Wonder and Allington Pippin) and a Victoria Plum, all 5 year olds and said to be bearing fruit, and planted them at the end of our garden. I intend to put a bush apple in the 2 spaces between, and then for most of the year the chickens should be out of sight if not sound. I also bought some polyantha roses and two climbing roses to put in the beds near the dining room – all these came out of £5 present your people gave me. On Tuesday I set to work on that much maligned old brown tallboy of yours, sandpapered it down and gave it an undercoat of Morning Blue, the colour you did the high chair. On Wednesday (my birthday, incidentally, I could feel you wishing me many happy returns!) I gave the tallboy its topcoat, I also painted the kitchen table and chair I bought second hand locally with paint to match the kitchen walls, which the previous tenant had kindly left neatly labelled in the garage.
On Thursday Frances and I started off early in the morning on our two-day expedition to town. One object of this was for me to go to the dentist as I had been having trouble with a wisdom tooth, and the other to buy the material for the sitting-room curtains and the chair and settee covers and a bed for the spare room. All these objectives were reached in the course of our whirlwind visit. We arrived about 10 a.m. and started off on the chair cover question. The problem was not only cash (the prices are terrific) but coupons. I had a permit for 15 sq. yds of material coupon free, as we are setting up house, but as most furnishing materials are 50” wide, that means about 11 yds. I took the loose cretonne cover off the easy chair, which was very tattered, as a pattern for size, and was told it would take 7 yds to cover the chair. I needed another 2 yds for the settee and piano stool, so there wasn’t much left of the permit for curtains! In the end I found a very nice cretonne at Lewis’s n***** brown ground with the design, not too large, in pale green (like the carpet) blue and rust, at 13/9 yd, and am having the chair cover made there, as I haven’t a machine to tackle it with here. The settee and piano stool I have covered myself and I think they look very nice. While all the deliberations over yardage and coupons was going on, Frances was prancing round the shop prodding cushions and trying the chairs – she was very patient really, it wasn’t much fun for her. However she was wearing her new white fur coat and white bonnet, and felt pretty smart, after we’d settled that problem, we went to D.H. Evans Quick Lunch counter for our lunch, which was more in France’s line. Then over Corringe’s in Victoria who were advertising some coloured hessians coupon free. They turned out to be most attractive and I chose a brick red one, which luckily exactly goes with our fireplace, and bought 10 yds at 7/6 yd for our living room curtains. I intend to embroider them in wool, if I can find a suitable design, which should make them look better. We looked in at the toy department, Frances had a grand time pushing all the engines and trucks round the floor, which [sic] I bought her a wee doll’s deckchair and a book for here Christmas presents. Then we went over to the Times Book Club to see about presents for the family but drew a blank. Then to Orchard Street

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and bought Frances a pair of white leggings to wear with her fur coat, and so exhausted but well satisfied, out to Barnet, where we met Ann by chance at the top of Queens Road. Frances is awfully fond of your people and made a good impression. They were interested to hear all about the house and have really been extremely generous to me. Your Mother has given me a blue and white rug which will go perfectly in our bedroom, two old travelling rugs which will help out the bedding situation, and when she offered me the me the gramophone cabinet as well , on condition that I didn’t shove it out into the garage as Bunty did when she was given it, I could not but accept it thankfully. I don’t know good [sic] the soundbox of the gramophone is, but maybe we could get it gingered up in somehow, and it will be nice to have a gramophone. It’s a nice piece of furniture anyway. Next morning we went into Barnet together to Gordon Wright’s where I chose four lampshades we needed and your Mother insisted on them being put on her bill, as a birthday present to me (18/-!) Then we went round to Searle’s, secondhand dealer , and I bought a few odds and ends, 2 pillows, a mat, a hassock and so on but they hadn’t got a bed worth having. Your Mother had previously rung up Jones Bros who had some second hand beds in stock, particularly a pair with box springs for £12 each. She was rather keen that I should get a pair though I am only needing one at the moment, she made the astounding offer that if I liked those beds and would buy one she would buy me the other! Or go shares with me in whatever I chose! So after the visit to Searle’s I left Frances with your Mother and Ann going out for lunch together and set off for Jones Bros. the pair turned out to be very heavy old fashioned steel ones and I had to turn them down in spite of the box springs. In the end I bought an ordinary oak single bed with a hair mattress, totalling £13 which was put down on your Mother’s account and I have sent her a cheque for £7, and I think it is extremely good of her. After that I found in their carpet department a rather nice striped matting rug, 9’ x 6’, ideal for the nursery (which at present only has the rug that used to cover the water tank at Lido!) so I bought that too, as it was a rare opportunity, though it cost £6.19.6. A carpet that size costs about £50! Then I dashed over to Woburn Square for my appointment with the dentist. He had no fault to find except the wisdom tooth which he said wasn’t worth stopping, so he proceeded to extract it. Luckily it came out quietly. Then another mad dash over to Marylebone where the faithful Ann was waiting with Frances [underlined] and [/underlined] a thermos of tea and some biscuits, which just about saved my life. We caught our train by the skin of our teeth, and arrived home at about 6 p.m. So we got a great deal done in the time, thanks largely to cooperation from your people. I invited them out here but the visit won’t be till after Xmas. If the new bed arrives this week I hope Ann will come down for next weekend. The week after that we will be going down to Devon for Xmas. I seem to have spent a good bit of money, Establishment a/c is now set back to £67, but on the other hand most of the big items are accounted for. I have heard from David Haas that he is making the bookshelf for us but the cupboard will have to wait a bit and he is coming out here, presumably with the bookshelf, after Xmas to advise on it. He always writes very friendly and helpful letters. There is still the painting of the outside of the house to be accounted for and the repairs to the piano, which I shall have to pay for after all, and after that perhaps I can [underlined] save [/underlined] some money, actually our living expenses aren’t much – they can’t be, rations being what they are.
My birthday presents came in instalments this year. Peter sent me electric bulbs on arrival at the house, Ba contributed towards the fruit trees and also gave me a recipe book, my people gave us two fruit trees too and also a mincer and a wastepaper basket for the house, and your Mother gave me the lampshades. A very old p.c. (20th July) arrived from you on the 8th too, which was nice though heavily censored. On my next birthday I hope for a more tangible greeting from you! After I explained to Frances that she ought to wish me many happy returns, she did it very nicely!
[handwritten] All my love to you, my darling Johnnie and a big kiss from Frances to “Farder – Daddy”. Ursula