Letter to Joan Wareing from Jacqueline Drony-Pillot

Letter to Joan Wareing from Jacqueline Drony-Pillot

Writes thanking them for their letter and telegram on the day of her wedding. She recounts aspects of the wedding and people who attended with regard to their connection with Robert. She describes her new location and also gives news of the doctor politician who refused to treat Robert for his war injuries.

1945-11-02

Eight page handwritten letter

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EPillotJWareingR-J451102

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Squadron Leader and Mrs Robert Wareing
Old Brumby
56 West Common Gardens
[underlined] Scunthorpe [/underlined]
[underlined] Lincolnshire [/underlined]
[underlined] Angleterre [/underlined]

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Jacqueline Drony – Pillot
Rue Duménil
Saint Romain, Seine Infre
[underlined] France. [/underlined]

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SAINT ROMAIN
Seine Inférieure France.

Friday November 2d

My dear friends,

Many days have passed since we received your nice telegram and lovely long letter. We are now a very old married pair. We feel “ancient”…. We have been exceedingly pleased and uncommonly proud to hear from you on the very day of our wedding. Your telegram was delivered just after the service at church. I daresay it created an actual and intense sensation. It is not often that people of a small hamlet receive wires from England!...

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All the same, both my husband and myself are very grateful to you for having thought so kindly of us on our wedding day. Thank you very very much – (you know, I am not good at all at expressing abstract feelings, the least I can say is that I was extremely pleased and moved by your nice attention) – now I think I must give you some details concerning our wedding. The best thing I can do is to send you some pictures so that you might know my husband.

We had a lovely weather – which is half the festivity – in spite of an early thunderstorm. We had been lucky enough to have the greater part of our families, so it was actually a

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nice “fête” – I had fourteen bridesmaids – all of them were my pupils – and you will be able to see them on the picture. All these boys and girls are the ones who, from October 1944 to May 1945, without having said “the evening prayer for the liberation of Robert Wareing and the eternal rest of the four boys of the 8th August” – I need not say they were tremendously happy to be present to their teachers wedding, and you would, no doubt, have liked the sight they made, when they circled round us, joined their hands and sang Auld Lang Syne, (with an atrocious pronunciation of course) before leaving at night. I loved it the more as it was

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a surprise which they had secretly prepared. Was it not nice?

We had a lovely honeymoon trip in Paris and the finest autumnal weather you could ever dream of, when being in Paris…

And now we are back in Saint Romain where our new house is. It was quite a difficult problem to find a house… We have been obliged to be contented with only one room, a very large on though… I try to make it cosy and tidy which is not very easy, but I do my best.

My husband works daily at his “Pharmacie” which is quite near our house. –

St Romain is a nice little town – not very important – about 5,000 inhabitants – not very far from La Cerlangue – 4 miles – so we are able to go very often visiting

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II

our people.

Now – more news about Squadron Leader Robert Wareing. Your name almost appeared on electoral advertisements and papers!.... The first doctor who came to see you in the barn, and refused to do anything was candidate to be County Councillor…. Last October, claiming that he had been a first class “Resistant” and a good patriot…. Of course, there were fierce quarrels, howls in the street, huge papers on the walls with “Remember the British captain of the 8th of August”…. And so on.. traitor – etc….

Well… he was the communist candidate and he was elected however scandalous it may seem…

I hope you will be able to understand this last piece of news. I am afraid it is written in broken English but I do want

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you to know that everybody has not forgotten and forgiven the foul and vile people who have done so much wrong to our allies and to our own country.

I think I must now close this letter which was written at three different moments and must be rather incoherent.

We express our very best wishes for Robert’s prompt and complete recovering, and particularly for a prompt meeting either in England or in France.

Trusting to hear from both of you soon,

Very sincerely

[underlined] Jacqueline [/underlined]

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