Stan and Grace

  This very worn small photograph (2.75" x 2.25") is not part of the Stan and Grace correspondence.  It shows a man with a boy aged maybe 8  or 9 years.  It has clearly been pinned to a board several times, with torn holes in the corners.  On the back it says: "A Stan con affetto.  Franco,  Mola, 11.8.44" I was puzzled by 'Mola', but having looked it up, Mola is a town within the Metropolitan City of Bari, where we know Stan was stationed, so this makes sense. Clearly this photo meant a lot to Stan, as he kept it long after the war was over, and I wonder what the relationship was between him and Franco.   Maybe Franco was one of the Italian interpreters or a civilian employed in the office?  We will never know.  

G.H.N.                                                                                          165 15.8.44 Dearest, Darling Stan, I was so sorry to read in the letter which you wrote me on our anniversary that you were in bed with a cold.   I do hope that it is much better by now and that you are feeling more like yourself.   I hope that you are being looked after properly Darling – you know you are very precious to me.   How I wish that I could hop on a ‘plane and come out there to look after you. I am afraid that if once I got out there they wo...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 14 Aug. 44 .                                                                          189. My Very Own Darling, I didn’t manage to get a letter written to you yesterday as, for a change, I was busy.   I was very pleased to get your Sunday letter & to know that things were going OK at the Hospital etc. & more important, that you still loved me! Yes, Sweetheart, I too have often wondered where our re-union will take place, as you say, wherever it is, it will be so thrilling, but I hope it isn’t on a crowded station, or anywhere like t...

G.H.N.                                                                                                    164 13-8-44 My Very Own Darling, Today is Sunday and my half-day so I thought that I would occupy the first part of it by writing to you. I have just been re-reading your last two letters.   Nothing gives me greater pleasure Darling, than reading your letters.   I am afraid that I filled the greater part of my last letter to you with grouses so consequently did not answer your letters properly. However, I promise you that there will no...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 11 Aug. 44 .                                                                                                        188. My Very Own Darling, The APO are really working wonders these days!  The letter which arrived from you yesterday evening was posted on 6 Aug – a vast improvement on the far off days in Nth. Africa when even air letters used to take as long as 12 days.  As the letter which arrived last night was the second in two days, I have got t...

G.H.N. 9-8-44                                                                                           162 10.10 p/m My Very Own Darling, I received two air-letters from you this morning so consequently have been happy for the rest of the day.   You had written one on Aug: 1 st and one on 30 July. So you have been doing yourself well and going out to dinner, have you?   You did not tell me what you had to eat!! Sorry that the dance following was not much of a success as far as you were concerned.   As for me getting suspi...