Stan and Grace

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.

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 was a pound of tomatoes in so if they are stil...

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...

  For the time being, Stan and his unit remain in Sicily, but what is happening in the wider Italian campaign? Montgomery crossed the straights of Messina on 3 September and a week later, the American army's 6th US Corps and the British 10th Corps landed in the Bay of Salerno, thirty miles south-east of Naples.  By 18 September the Germans had begun to withdraw to the north of Naples. As can be seen from the cutting below, from the Birmingham Daily Gazette of 2 October, the British press were being very positive about the progress being made in Italy, but behind the scenes there was still lack of planning and agreement about the purpose and direction of the Italian campaign.  On 20 September, Montgomery wrote in his diary: "One cannot get away from the fact that I was ordered to invade the mainland of Europe without being given adequate resources, and without even being given any object .... the High Command in this Mediterranean Theatre of War invaded Italy, and thus emb...