Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula
Title
Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula
Description
Reports arriving at holiday location and activities there. Writes of visiting an auction and describing purchases. Continues with news of her activities.
Creator
Date
1944-12-19
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Two sided handwritten letter card
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
EValentineUMValentineJRM441219
Transcription
Start of transcription
DATE December 19th 1944.
My dearest Johnnie,
Frances and I have now arrived safely at Little Close, and are finding it much warmer than at home. The sun is shining and it [underlined] almost [/underlined] looks warm enough for a bathe – but not quite! We went for a long walk yesterday with 3 girls whose people also live here, one with small boy of 18 months, & picked big bunches of holly, butchers broom, rose hips & fir branches to decorate the house for Christmas. I’m afraid Barbara won’t be able to come down after all but Peter will. Daddy & I went to an auction sale last Friday, which is as exciting as a day at the races for me. I managed to buy a bookcase to go in the diningroom [sic] for 35/-, some very useful kitchen and garden tools for about £1, and some Breton china, which I am very fond of & which must be unobtainable new now; over a dozen plates, teapot & jug, bowl, two jam pots, 2 ashtrays for £2.5.0. The problem now will be to get them home, but I think Daddy will pack them up for me scientifically. I bid for some things for him too. Daddy is far too shy to bid at an auction! So we had a good day together & are well satisfied. We had a few rubbers of bridge last night
[page break]
with one of the above-mentioned girls – I wonder if you play much nowadays. I’m afraid you’ll be far too good for me, but I hope we’ll be able to make up a four sometimes at home. I must teach you Euchre too, a good game for 2 Bunty showed me. I’d be interested to know if you get this letter quicker than usual. I think of you always dear & love you more than ever for your courage. Big kiss from Frances, love, Ursula.
[inserted] C of 3 [/inserted] [postmark] [postage stamp]
RANK & NAME: Sgt. J.R.M. VALENTINE
[stamp PASSED P.W. 7863]
PRISONER OF WAR No.: 450
CAMP NAME & No.: STALAG 357
COUNTRY: GERMANY
FROM
Mrs JRM Valentine,
Felmersham,
Bottrell’s Lane,
Chalfont St Giles
DATE December 19th 1944.
My dearest Johnnie,
Frances and I have now arrived safely at Little Close, and are finding it much warmer than at home. The sun is shining and it [underlined] almost [/underlined] looks warm enough for a bathe – but not quite! We went for a long walk yesterday with 3 girls whose people also live here, one with small boy of 18 months, & picked big bunches of holly, butchers broom, rose hips & fir branches to decorate the house for Christmas. I’m afraid Barbara won’t be able to come down after all but Peter will. Daddy & I went to an auction sale last Friday, which is as exciting as a day at the races for me. I managed to buy a bookcase to go in the diningroom [sic] for 35/-, some very useful kitchen and garden tools for about £1, and some Breton china, which I am very fond of & which must be unobtainable new now; over a dozen plates, teapot & jug, bowl, two jam pots, 2 ashtrays for £2.5.0. The problem now will be to get them home, but I think Daddy will pack them up for me scientifically. I bid for some things for him too. Daddy is far too shy to bid at an auction! So we had a good day together & are well satisfied. We had a few rubbers of bridge last night
[page break]
with one of the above-mentioned girls – I wonder if you play much nowadays. I’m afraid you’ll be far too good for me, but I hope we’ll be able to make up a four sometimes at home. I must teach you Euchre too, a good game for 2 Bunty showed me. I’d be interested to know if you get this letter quicker than usual. I think of you always dear & love you more than ever for your courage. Big kiss from Frances, love, Ursula.
[inserted] C of 3 [/inserted] [postmark] [postage stamp]
RANK & NAME: Sgt. J.R.M. VALENTINE
[stamp PASSED P.W. 7863]
PRISONER OF WAR No.: 450
CAMP NAME & No.: STALAG 357
COUNTRY: GERMANY
FROM
Mrs JRM Valentine,
Felmersham,
Bottrell’s Lane,
Chalfont St Giles
Collection
Citation
Ursula Valentine, “Letter to prisoner of war John Valentine from his wife Ursula,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed September 7, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/20410.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.