Sunday, 26 December, 1943

2364226
Sergt. S. Bristow                                                                           95.
Headquarters
15 L of C Signals
Cen Med Forces

26 Dec 43             

My Very Own Darling,

Christmas has been very good as far as mail from you is concerned, for following closely upon your sea letter (Nov 6) which I received yesterday, came two air letters dated 8 and 14 Dec respectively.  You were at home, of course, when you wrote the last one.

How did your nights off go down?  Did you get plenty of sleep?  I bet you were in need of it and of course you had no tormenting male to keep you out of bed, this time, had you?  Life should be a bit sweeter for you nowadays not having any lectures or studying to do.  Must be a great relief not having to do any swotting.

I wrote you a ten page sea letter yesterday describing “Christmas Day in the Workhouse”*.  We did very well considering all the circumstances.  As I mentioned in my letter the sergeants were invited out to a Bomb Disposal Unit last night & we had quite a hectic party which reached its climax when the Unit Mascot (a pig) found its way into the Mess!!

Today everyone has got the “after Christmas” feeling which isn’t helped at all by the miserable weather (it is raining cats & dogs & is very cold).  I note that Grimethorpe was enveloped in a thick fog when you wrote.  I am pleased to say those sort of things are taboo here.

I noted from your letter that you had been taking my brother out.  Was I jealous?  I think I could have taken his place, even if it was on a visit to relatives.

Just completed a nasty job.  One of our blokes died in hospital at lunchtime yesterday & I have been packing up his belongings ready to send home to his wife.  He went into hospital on 23rd with suspected pleurisy but the cause of his death was Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis (doesn’t mean anything to me)

It was rather touching, for in his pocket at the time of his death was a half finished letter to his wife.  Future Christmas days will not be very happy for her, I am afraid.

I am in a hell of a state with myself today after yesterday’s game of hockey.  I am so stiff that I had to almost roll out of bed this morning!!  Talk about the Swan’s Liniment advertisement; it’s not worth it!! My fingers and wrists are about the only things I can move freely this morning.

Sorry to hear you felt lonely in Grimethorpe without me, Darling, but I can just imagine how you feel.  Still, who knows, it may not be many more “nights off” before I am back again with you.  Looking around the world it looks as though we are going to get moving pretty quickly – the quicker the better for both of us, what do you say.

However, Darling you know that until that long looked for day you have my written love.  After that – well, we will really start living!! 

Always yours, Angel    Stan  xxxx

* Sadly, this is missing

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

 #royalsignalsWWII   #royalsignalsworldwar2   #soldierWWII   #Italy1943  #ItalyWW2  

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment. I will post it on the page as soon as possible.

Popular posts from this blog

A Box of Letters

Image
Early in 2001 my sister, Susan and I were working on the task of clearing our mother's house.   Our father, Stan, had died in 1989, just a month short of his 70th birthday.   Our mother, Grace, had now declined with dementia to the point where there was no alternative but for her to go into a care home.  Susan and I needed to empty the house prior to it being sold. We opened the wardrobe.  Most of the clothes had gone, either with Mum when she moved into the home, or to the charity shop.  There, in the bottom of the wardrobe was a large old cardboard box.  We pulled out the box, put it on the bed and opened it up.  Inside we found hundreds of letters, in random piles, in our parents' handwriting or typed on an old manual typewriter.  They were the letters our parents wrote to each other between February, 1942, when they met, and April, 1946, when our father was demobbed at the end of the Second World War. Susan took them home with her an...
Read more

Sunday, 6 December, 1942 - Grace's letter

Image
The constant search for paper to write on - tonight Grace is using letter-headed Hospital notepaper! Ward Castle 2 Nurses Home General Hospital Nottingham Dec. 6, 1.30 a.m.  My Precious Darling, What a lovely long letter I received this morning (sorry, I mean yesterday)   I would like to write you at least twelve pages back but I really have not the time. We have been so busy since Tuesday.   Wednesday night was hectic.   I stopped working once, for 10 minutes, and that was to have a cup of coffee and two biscuits. Thursday night was a little better, I managed to get about half an hour with my lecture book. We have not had a case in to-night – so far – but there is plenty of time for one to come in before 8 a.m. We have three irrational patients in – one to the right of my desk – one to the left – and one in a side ward.   I have to be popping in to her every five minutes or so, to see that she is not hopping out of bed.   Ah me – it’s a...
Read more

Wednesday, 8 December, 1943 - Grace's Letter

G.H.N.                                                                                          (75) 8-12-43   9 a.m. My Own Darling, Yesterday morning’s post brought me two air-letters from you, one dated Nov. 24 th and one dated Nov: 26 th , so it had only taken them about ten days to arrive in England. I really intended writing this letter some time during the night but I did not have chance for a meal never mind a letter.   Between 8 p.m. and 8.30 a.m. I had exactly one cup of tea and one piece of cake.   The only opport...
Read more