Stan and Grace

G.H.N. 26.9.44                                                                                                    183 My Own Precious Darling, I was very thrilled to receive your letter this morning from Rome*.   In a short while now your journey back will start.   I hope that it will not take you as long to get back as it did to reach Rome.   2½ days travelling seems a heck of a long time to me.   However, I suppose that it has been worth all the trouble to see all the things and sights which you must have seen. I am so glad that you are managing to get ar...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 25 Sep. 44 .                                                                                         210. My Very Own Darling, I’ve just had a nice hot bath and have jumped into bed to write to you.   It’s “Naafi Day” again and so I’ve got a bottle of beer to keep m...

The following is a ‘sea letter’, sent after Stan’s trip to Rome.   The first and last pages are hand-written.  The rest of the letter is typed so that Stan could send a copy to his parents without having to write it all out again.  This copy was probably passed on to the South Yorkshire Times in the same way as 'A Football Match' (see 31 August). 2364226                                           Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 24 Sep. 44 .                                                   ...

  2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 23 Sep. 44 .                                                                                          208. My Own Most Precious Darling, Well, my holiday is all over bar the shouting – and talking!   I arrived back about a couple of hours ago feeling extremely dirty and tired.   A bath soon put the former right, but I thought I’d write to you before I went to sleep & so here I am, sitting up in bed, writing to the best girl in the whole world. It was so thrilling to get back and f...

G.H.N.          21.9.44                                                                      181 My Very Precious Darling, I have not much news for you but a letter is always welcome, is it not? Yesterday nothing exciting happened – just the same old routine, and to-day has been very much the same. I have started reading “The West Wind of Love” but find that an atlas would enable me to follow the story better.   As I have not read much of it as yet I can hardly pass an opinion upon it. Friday 22 nd Did not get this finished last night as I intended doing as the night nurse came on duty.   It is my half-...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 21 Sep. 44 .                                                                          207. My Very Own Darling, My visit to Rome is fast coming to a close – I return to my unit tomorrow.   The past four days have been very enjoyable, but, oh dear, how footsore and weary I am now!   The weather rather put a damper on things, for it's been raining for the past two days, but it really hasn’t restricted our activities too much for we have been looking at “indoor sights” for the past two days. This morning I confined to looking around the s...