Stan and Grace

2364226                                                                                        74 . Sergt Bristow S, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces. 31 Oct 43         My Very Own Darling, Have just finished work a few minutes ago & thought I would write the letter I promised in the air letter which I wrote last night. I have just re-read your last air letter for the umpteenth time, it is so thrilling to think that you are bit by bit preparing the home that we have both talked, written & dreamed of this last...

G.H.N. 28-10-43    My Own Darling, I am committing a great crime by starting to write this letter on duty.   The truth is that I have nothing to do for the next ten minutes so I thought I start this.   We are “taking-in” once again so I guess we shall have plenty to do during the coming week.   We are usually quite slack the first day. I have received your letter dated October 14 th .   The mail position has certainly improved this last fortnight.   I was very sorry to read that in future your air letters will have to be curtailed to one a fortnight.   I know that you will make up for then in your ordinary letters.   I look forward to your letters so much, Darling. 30-10-43 My letter writing was interrupted the other day by the telephone ringing and a voice at the other end saying “This is casualty speaking, we are sending you an acute appendix.”   We do not seem to have stopped taking cases for long, ever since.   Howev...

2364226                                                                              72 (I think!) Sergt Bristow S, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces. Wed'y 27 Oct 43 My Very Own Darling, I am on duty all night to-night and so I thought I would start this air letter to you.   I shan’t finish it until to-morrow for the air mail delivery for this week has just arrived and so to-morrow there may be a letter from you.   Had one from home tonight in which Mother mentioned that you had received the stockings I sent to you.   I am interested to know what you thought of them, but I...

General Hospital, Nottingham. 27-10-43       My Own Darling, I do not know where you will be when these books arrive but wherever you are I hope that they arrive safely and that you find time to read them. I racked my brains but could not think of anything you would want out there. I know that you will not want more bulk than you can avoid to carry around with you so maybe when you have read the books you might care to pass them on to your friends. However, Darling, just do as you please with them. I only hope that they arrive in time for Christmas and I wish you as happy a Christmas as you can have under the circumstances. ‘Bye Darling, I want to post this parcel to-day and it is post time now. All my love, your own, Grace   xxxxxxx  

G.H.N. 24-10-43     My Own Darling, To-day is Sunday and it is such a beautiful day too.   The sun is shining but there is just a nip in the air – in fact it is just the sort of day for a long country walk.   As I have only half an hour off for lunch I can hardly go for a walk so I decided to start writing you a letter. I did not receive a letter from you at all last week but your Mother showed me one which she had received from you last Tuesday.   However, I am hoping that there will be one from you to-morrow. There is no fresh news to tell you since I last wrote.   I am still waiting for a letter from home to tell me whether or not Eric has arrived. I am reading a book called “The Last Train from Berlin”.   It is written by an American newspaper correspondent called Howard Smith.   He gives a very good account of life in Germany during the first two years of Hitler’s war against us.   He was the last American to leave Germany be...

  G.H.N.                                                                                          (65?) 20-10-43    My Own Darling, I had a half-day Tuesday and day-off Wednesday to go home for Grandfather’s funeral.    I am so glad that it is all over.    I am not so fond of attending funerals.    I am glad that it is over too for Mother’s sake.    Poor Mother – she looked worn out. I went up to see your Mother, but could not stay long.    However, we made the most of the short time I ...

  2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow                                                                                       70 . Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces 19 Oct 43                 My Very Own Darling, To-day was one of the days which have been so few & far between of late – the day when a letter arrives from you – and you know what that means to me, don’t you, Dear?    Life takes on a brighter hue and all the depressions are put at one side as visions of what is waiting in the future for both of us oc...

  G.H.N. 16-10-43    My Very Own Darling, This morning I received an air-letter from you dated Oct. 3 rd .    Yesterday the other pair of silk stockings arrived safely.    Darling, those stockings are so marvellous I hardly dare put them on, not having had the pleasure of handling really fine stockings for about three years.    I am so pleased that you thought of sending them Darling and thank you so much for them.    All my friends look at them with envy.    Nice stockings are such treasures these days. This morning I had a telegram from home telling me that Grandad had died*. I shall be going home Tuesday as the burial will be on Wednesday.    Poor Mother, she always seems to catch any extra work that is going around.    I feel that I would like to go home but I went to Matron the other day and she said that she could not possibly spare me (I bet that they would if it were for their convenience though...

  2364226    Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters, 15 L of C Signals, CMF 69.                                                                                       15 OCT 43 MY VERY OWN DARLING, I AM EXCELLING MYSELF THIS WEEK, THIS IS THE THIRD LETTER IN THREE DAYS!    I WAS SO PLEASED TO GET YOUR AIR LETTER DATED 5 OCT 43 THIS EVENING, HOWEVER, THAT I THOUGHT I REALLY MUST SIT DOWN AND REPLY TO IT STRAIGHT AWAY. I AM SORRY TO HEAR THAT THERE IS A LACK OF MAIL FROM THIS END AT THE TIME OF WRITING.    YOU WILL JUST BE GETTING THE RESULTS OF...

  2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow                                                                                                  68 . Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces 14 Oct 43        My Very Own Darling, I wrote quite a long ordinary letter to you last night, Dear, in answer to a letter from you which had been on the way for exactly two months, and so exhausted most of my news.    I thought this air letter would be welcome as well, however, & so here goes. Not having much ...

  Nurses Home, General Hospital Nottingham 13-10-43       My Own Darling, I wrote you an air letter this morning so I suppose it will arrive long before this one.    An air letter is not very big though is it when one has a lot to say?    However, I suppose we are lucky that there are such things as air letters. I have just finished writing to your Mother telling her bout these lovely stockings which you sent me.    I was thrilled with them. Kit had a surprise this morning too.    When we went to Wales on the 5 th  of July (Gosh, it does seem a long time ago) she left a small case on the train at Abertillery.    We made all enquiries about it but it had completely disappeared.    This morning she received a letter from the lost property office at Paddington Station saying that the case was there.    As one of her Aunts lives in London she will be able to collect it for her.    There ...

G.H.N.                                                                                          (63) 12-10-43     My Very Own Darling, I received two ordinary letters from you yesterday dated Sept. 15 th and 20 th .   They were such long letters too Darling and so interesting. I am pleased that there were several letters waiting for you when you arrived back from your trip.   You know Darling, you have certainly got around since you left England.   At times I feel really jealous!   There will be such a lot for y...

 In her letter of 3rd and 4th October, Grace mentioned that her ward had admitted a small boy.  She said:  "This afternoon we admitted a little boy aged six who had been knocked down by a van.  Poor little chap.  We have done everything possible for him but I am afraid he is not going to live."  The press cutting below is from the Nottingham Journal of 9 October, reporting the inquest into the death of a six year-old boy who was knocked down by a van, having been chased by two older boys.  The badly edited report below says that the accident occurred on 5 September, but as will be seen from recent posts, Grace seemed to get her dates in a muddle at this time (I suspect not helped by her working long shifts) and it is perfectly possible that she was continuing her letter on the 5th. It seems Grace was right and the little boy did not survive. #1940snursinghistory  #1940snurse   #nursing1940s  #Nottinghamnursinghistory   #No...

Grace seems to have got into a bit of a tangle with her letters to Stan.  On 3rd October she started an air letter that she finished on the 4th.  She also started a sea letter, which she didn't manage to finish until the 7th.  On the 7th, she at last received two letters from Stan, after a month of no mail at all.  She just had to reply straight away!  However, in this letter she says that she posted the sea letter "yesterday", which would have been the 6th .... G.H.N. 7-10-43                                                                                                         (62) My Very Own Darling, I was so very thrilled to receive two air letter...

Nurses Home General Hospital Nottingham 3-10-43          My Very Own Darling, I have just finished washing my hair and am sitting at the front of a lovely fire, drying my hair and writing this letter to you.   The wireless is on and playing “Schubert’s Serenade”.   I think that it is a lovely piece of music, don’t you? It is such a luxury to sit at the front of a fire as we are not allowed fires until the first of this month. I am feeling very thrilled to-night as Eric is coming to see me to-morrow.   I would have liked to have gone home but I seem to have had so much extra time recently that I do not like asking for more.   Sister is also back on duty and giving extra time off rather upsets her. However, Eric and Bessie are coming down here to see me.   They will stay at Stapleford with my friend Connie, or at least with her parents.   Stapleford, by the way, is about six miles away. Darling, if only you were comi...

G.H.N. 3-10-43                                                                                                                          (61) My Own Darling Time is creeping on but still no letter from you.   It is almost four weeks since I received your last air-letter.   How I wish that the A.P.O. would speed things up a bit and deliver your letters.   However, I suppose I will have to have a little more patience.   I am afraid that I do get impatient where you letters are concerned.   They mean such a lot to me. I have just returned from a visit to the pictures.   Kit and I went to see Alice Fo...

2364226                                                                                                  64 . Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces Sunday 3 Oct 43 My Very Own Darling, By the time you receive this letter, Darling, you will have got your dreaded examination behind you & be launched on the long – and as you say – agonising wait for the result.   What a long time waiting for the result!   How do you think you got on? I am sorry to hear that you ar...