Stan and Grace

 In his letter of 13 September, Stan told Grace that he had received a letter from his sister, Janet, who was writing to let him know that his mother had gone to Cottingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the previous day as their Grandmother was 'very weak'. Stan's Grandmother was Annie Lettice Spink (nee Farr) and, unbeknown at this time to Stan, his Grandmother had died on 12 September.  She was 75 years old and died of kidney failure and heart disease. Annie was born and grew up in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, where her father, John, ran an ironmonger's business.  In the mid-1880's John gave up the business and the family moved to Luton.  Annie and her older sister, Nellie, later moved to become 'Asylum Attendants' at the Hull Borough Lunatic Asylum, which was in  Cottingham.  It was here that Annie met and married Harry Edward Spink, who was also an Asylum Attendant.  They lived in Cottingham for the rest of their lives. The couple had two da...

  G.H.N. 13.9.44                                                                      177 My Most Precious Darling, The A.P.O. is not up to its usual standard this week as it has not delivered as yet, an air-letter from you.   A letter from you my Beloved makes all the difference in the world to my day.   The sun does not shine for me when there is no letter from you.   I do hope that you are keeping well Darling and that there is nothing wrong at all – or that they are not working you too hard. Here I am, getting queer ideas into my head when I am sure that it is negligence on the A.P.O.’s part.   The trouble is that yo...

G.H.N. 11.9.44                                                                                               176 My Very Precious Darling, The book which you promised to send me has followed closely behind your letter in which you told me you were sending it, for it arrived at lunch time to-day. Thank you Darling.   I got quite a thrill out of just reading your inscription on the first page – only five words but they seemed so intimate and conveyed such a lot to me.   When we meet again I shall have such a lot to thank you for in the proper way. At the moment ...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 10 Sep. 44 .                                                                          202. My Very Own Precious Darling, What a day its been to-day!   Our little town has really been gay, for to-day has been the biggest “festa” of the year and the last of the summer months, the Feast of the Madonna, and its been a real gala day.   Now it's close on midnight, but there’s “sounds of revelry by night” (to quote the poet) still drifting into my bedroom on the cool night air. The proceedings started early this morning with the religious par...

G.H.N. 9.9.44             My Very Precious Darling, Ivy and I have just returned from a very enjoyable evening out.   We have been to the Albert Hall to hear the Halle Orchestra.   Darling, I wish you could have been with me.   I know that you would have enjoyed it as much as I did.   The music was really delightful. The piece which really thrilled me was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no: 4 in F minor but it is hopeless for me to try and explain to you what it was really like – all I know is that I was simply carried away with the whole thing.   It is the very first time I have ever been to a Symphony Concert but it will not be the last. As Ivy and I will not be here together for much longer we decided to make an evening of it and we went to the County Hotel where we had a very nice dinner. To-day has been a very good day altogether as I have received two letters from you my Dear.   One arrived thi...

Note to readers - this is the second letter from Stan written on the 6 September.  Scroll down on the main blog page for letters written on the 6th from both Stan and Grace.   2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 6 Sep. 44 .                                                                                               201. My Very Own Precious Darling, It was very troubling to receive your letter this morning and find that everything was so unsatisfactory with regard to your immediate future.  Whilst...