Sunday, 31 October, 1943

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 year.  I am so proud of you Darling & do so wish I was a bit nearer so that I could give you a bit of a helping hand.  These things make life so very thrilling, don’t they?

I have just been thinking of the happenings of four years ago tonight – my last night at home, before going to Harrogate to join up.  Little did I think I was going to spend five years in the Army, as it looks as though I shall & neither did I realise that I should have a trip to Africa and Italy.  France was the furthest I imagined myself travelling.

Four years!  What a lot has happened in that time!!  But it is the last 20 months I look upon with the most pleasure, Darling, & you know why, for you are the person responsible!  When I first took you into my arms & twirled you around the Welfare Hall, talking all sorts of rot to you, I didn’t realize that the happiest chapter of my most uneventful life was about to start.

Since then, my dear, I have often tried to analize (I think its spelled wrongly – my alleged brain isn’t functioning too well tonight!) what determined me to put up such a hard fight to rescue you from the clutches of the nursing racket, but I haven’t really quite decided.

I think it was the way you smiled at me over the table of that queer little cafe we went to in Barnsley that evening in such a manner that the light caught your eyes & gave them that twinkle which I have since found so entrancing on many occasions.  Remember in the cafe how after a lot of perseverance I managed to extract a half-hearted promise that you would write to me once a month!!  What a difficult young lady you were to convince in those days.

I am glad I had read the story of Bruce & the Spider & learned the moral of that tale!

Ah but I am beginning to get nostalgic & perhaps you are tired of my dipping into the past, so I’ll change the mood!

Biggest piece of scandal since coming to Sicily has occurred this week & set all the tongues wagging. What do you think – a sergeant has applied for permission to marry a Sicilian girl whom he met less than a month ago!!  There must be something in this “language of love” that I have heard so much about, for he can’t speak a word of Italian & she doesn’t know a word of English.  Amazing, isn’t it?  We all think the bloke has been touched by the sun whilst out in the desert.  Anyway, it has given us something to talk about out of the ordinary!  We are awaiting developments to see whether he does the job or is sensible enough to back out.  We are all interestedly awaiting a chance to give the maiden the once over.  She must have something that other girls in this part of the world are lacking, if she can “get her man” in a fortnight!

Apart from the fact that it is Sunday & its been raining like hell most of the day, I’ve nothing else to write about, except to tell you how much I am loving you & how much I miss you as each day passes, Darling.  I have written this many times, Angel, but each time I write it I mean it more & more.

It is a marvellous comfort to know that you are waiting for me, Darling & quietly building the foundations of the home which one day, in the not too far distant future we shall share together.

Only then Darling will our happiness be near completion.  I am just living for that day, dear, which for me cannot dawn too quickly.

I send my written love, but ah, how nice it would be to be able to hold you in my arms for a moment or two & be able to demonstrate how deep my feeling of love towards you is Darling.

But that’s impossible & I suppose we must kerb our impatience!  Be good Darling & keep my love.  I know I have all yours.  Always Yours, Stan xxxxx

#lovestory  #lovestoryWWII   #lovestoryworldwar2  #1940slovestory #wartimelovestory  #lovestoryinletters  #loveletters 

#royalsignalsWWII   #royalsignalsworldwar2   #soldierWWII  #sicily1943