Stan and Grace

Nurses Home                                                                                (92) General Hospital Nottingham 22-1-44 My Own Darling, Having given out all medicines, taken my temperatures and tucked everybody up for the night and done all the other hundred and one jobs that there are to do, I find myself with half an hour to spare so thought that I would start this letter to you. I have only three more nights to work and then I spend five nights in my own little bed at home.   I suppose that by the time this letter reaches you I will have been home, come back again and...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            105. 21 Jan 44 My Very Own Darling, I’ve spent the last couple of minutes adding up and taking away and have come to the conclusion that if the Army Post Office keep up the good record they have established recently of delivering my letter to you in 9 – 10 days, this one should just about arrive in time for your birthday. Anyway, just in case it does, I’ll start by wishing you lots of happiness on your birthday – and here’s an extra typewritten couple of birthday...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            104. 18 Jan 44 My Very Own Darling, I was beginning to get annoyed with the Postal authorities for today was the ninth without a letter from you.   My good temper was restored this evening, however, when your air letter of the 8 th turned up.   I suppose I didn’t ought to grumble, did I?   Ten days from England isn’t bad going. Yes, Darling, eleven long months have rolled by very slowly since we said “Au Revoir” one winters afternoon on Doncaster ...

G.H.N.                                                                                          (92) 18-1-44 My Own Darling, This morning I received your air-letter dated Jan: 4th.   I was so pleased that you received mail from me on Christmas Day.   Your letter was the best Christmas box I had. Christmas seems so far away now, doesn’t it?   I wonder where we shall both be next Christmas? The other morning I saw a trade show and a newsreel was being shown of the country you are fighting in in Italy.   I must admit I did ...

G.H.N.                                                                                          (90) 9.30 a.m.   15-1-44 My Very Own Darling, This is the third time I have picked up my pen to write this letter to you.   The first time I tried I had to suddenly dash away to a patient that had collapsed – the second time the doctor arrived and just as I got rid of him I had to admit a new case so I decided that the only place I could write and not be disturbed was in my own bedroom – and now I am not so sure that Kit will not come dashing...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            102. 15 Jan 44 My Very Own Darling, Well, that couple of days in bed did the trick and here I am, back at work and feeling fine again. The spell in bed did one thing, anyway Darling, it gave me time to read that novel you sent me amongst my Christmas books – called “Counterfeit”.   It is quite good.   Beautifully written, it grips you, but it is so full of chaperones and shy young women who don’t know how many beans make five, that I found myself breath...

In Stan's letter to Grace written on 10 January, he says that in a recent letter his mother  mentioned that "she and my Father had had to dash over to Hull to see my Grandmother on Christmas Day.    Apparently she is very weak ..." Stan's maternal grandmother, Annie Lettice Spink, was born Annie Lettice Farr on 10 December, 1868, in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.  She was the third daughter of John Farr, an ironmonger, and his wife Kate (nee Turney). By 1891, when she was 23 years old, Annie had moved with her older sister, Nellie, to become an asylum attendant at the Hull Borough Lunatic Asylum in Willerby, near Hull.  This may seem an unusual career choice for two young women until you know that, at that time, their father, John, had been for several years resident in the Three Counties Lunatic Asylum in Bedfordshire, suffering from insanity caused by syphilis.  He died in November, 1891, of paralysis, caused by the syphilis, and pneumonia. It would seem...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            100. 10 Jan 44 My Very Own Darling, I am sorry that I have kept you waiting four days since my last letter, but there has seemed to have been a sudden flood of extra work recently, & of course, that has meant but one thing – extra hours.   Still I have got rid of it all & here I am again. As you see from above, this is the 100 th letter I have written to you since that February morning when I said farewell to England (that is if my counting has been...

G.H.N.                                                                                                      (89?) 8.1.44 My Own Darling, Two letters from you this morning and they were only written on Dec: 26 th and 29 th .   Good going, isn’t it? I was pleased to hear that you had a reasonably good Christmas.   You did not manage to get drunk then?   Though I suppose you had nothing to get drunk on! So, you are jealous of me taking your brother out, are you?   Well, well, when you arrive b...

Nurses Home General Hospital Nottingham 6-1-44 My Own Darling, Once again it is the sixth – our anniversary.   One whole year and eleven months since we first met.   What a lot has happened in that time too. It is exactly one year ago to-day that I rang Matron up and told her that I could not get back.   I still feel glad that I did – don’t you? I received a letter from your Mother two days ago.   In it she mentioned that she had written a letter to you and recalled the night of the factory dance.   I quite enjoyed that night.   What time was it in the morning when you got home? Do you remember the morning when you did not get home until about 4 a/m? Vera said when I was at home last that Mother had been wondering what time you got home that morning.   She does not know yet. Ah me!   What heavenly days those were – and nights. I wonder how soon they will be repeated? Do you remember also how horribly cold and snowy it was l...

  2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                                                                               98. 4 Jan 44 My Very Own Darling, Your letter written on Christmas Day arrived this morning, much to my delight.  Pleased to hear that you managed to keep sober throughout the festivities and that on the whole you managed to have a good time, everything be...

G.H.N                                                             3-1-44 1 a.m. My Own Darling, I have not as yet got used to writing ‘44 instead of ’43.   1943 was quite an eventful year, wasn’t it?   I wonder what this new year will bring. I think that this is also going to be an eventful year. A year ago to-night Darling we were together – at the front of a blazing fire.   I guess I was looking at the clock and telling you to go but not wanting you to go at all. Tonight I am sitting at a desk writing this to you and we are miles and miles away.   We neither of us thought last year that you would be somewhere in Italy – though we did wonder. It makes me wonder where we shall both be next year at this time. In one of your recent letters you seemed quite worried about the fact that I might be joining the...

AIRGRAPH 2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow, Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            97. 2 Jan 44 ON SEEING THIS YOU WILL NO DOUBT GUESS THAT I HAVE NO AIR LETTERS ON HAND AT THE MOMENT.   AS YOU KNOW, THIS RATHER PUBLIC WAY OF CARRYING ON A CORRESPONDENCE IS ALWAYS A LAST RESORT!! I WROTE A SEA LETTER TO YOU YESTERDAY EVENING*, BUT I WAS SITTING IN THE MESS TONIGHT DREAMING OF YOU (AS USUAL) AND DECIDED THAT I WOULD COME BACK INTO THE OFFICE TO TYPE THIS AIRGRAPH. A YEAR AGO TONIGHT WE WERE TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC AT THE D...