Stan and Grace

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 22 Oct. 44 .                                                                           224. My Very Own Darling, The end of another week & the beginning of yet another.   I’m not sorry to see the end of this week, neither, for its been a disastrous week – you know the sort of week when nothing has gon...

G.H.N. 20.10.44                                                                    196 My Most Precious Darling, Imagine my delight when after six days without receiving any letters from you I received three air letters from you this morning.   Yes, it certainly put me in high spirits for the rest of the day. In one of your letters you said that you were anxious to hear the result of our interview at Barnsley.   Well, by now you will have received my letter telling you that both Kit and myself got the posts.   I can hardly realise that I have only two more days to work here.   As I look back over the past four years here in some respec...

G.H.N. 19.10.44                                                                                     195 My Very Own Darling, The A.P.O. must be slipping again as it is five whole days since I last received a letter from you.   However, there is no telling what to-morrow may bring. I am sure that the maid who gives out our letters must get tired of me as I enquire if any more post has been delivered every time I pass her. Yesterday morning the Hospital’s Anniversary Service was held at St. Mary’s Church.   Sister or Staff Nurse from each ward is supposed to go.   As Sister was on duty and I was off, it fell my lot to attend same.   The service was given by Lord Long of Lambeth w...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 18 Oct. 44 .                                                                           223. Hello, my own Precious Darling, The APO have worked wonders since my last letter, having delivered two letters from you and, believe it or not, both of them in 3 days.   Amazing isn’t it?   The liberation of ...

G.H.N. 17.10.44                                                                                                                194 My Very Own Darling, Have not much news for you but a letter is always welcome, is it not? Have had rather a hectic morning in the operating theatre with a “case”.   In fact I was quite exhausted at the end of it.   In the first place it was a big abdominal operation, secondly Mr Allen, the surgeon, was in a bad mood and thirdly the patient did not take his anaesthetic very well.   The patient twisted and turned and struggled and did everything he ought not ...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 16 Oct. 44 .                                                                           222. Hello my own Darling, There’s just been a smashing programme on the wireless which brought back quite a lot of memories about our early days.   It was an operatic request programme with both the Tchaik Concerto and...

G.H.N. 14.10.44                                                                    193 My Own Darling, The postman has certainly favoured me to-day as this morning he delivered an air letter from you and this afternoon the almonds which you sent me.   Thank you Darling.   As usual, both my friends and myself appreciated the latter.   This evening about half a dozen of us sat on my bed and made pigs of ourselves with the box of nuts.   You do spoil me Dear. I was sorry to read in your letter that you had not been getting my letters as regularly as usual.   I know how I felt when I was kept waiting a few days for yours.   I hop...

G.H.N. 13.10.44                                                                    192 My Precious Darling, At last, at long last, have I got my future (or at least for the next twelve months) settled. Kit and I have just returned from our interview at Kendray Hospital, Barnsley.   We have decided to go there – and have been accepted. We went home last night.   We caught a train at 7 p/m and arrived in Grimethorpe at 9.30 p/m and went for our interview this afternoon. The hospital has 140 beds – much smaller than this place of course.   The Nurses Home looks very nice and the conditions seem all right.   Of course, I cannot really ...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 12 Oct. 44 .                                                                           220. Hello, my beloved Darling, There’s not a more contented bloke in Italy then yours truly today.   The reason?   Why I’ve had two more letters from you to-day.   Fancy five letters in five days.   What...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 11 Oct. 44 .                                                                           219. My Very Own Precious Darling, Nothing much to report today.   Started the day off well, though, because another letter (the third of the week) arrived from a certain young lady who means more to me than anyone else...

G.H.N. 10.10.44                                                                    191 My Most Precious Darling, I hoped that there might be a letter from you to-day but no – I was doomed to disappointment.   There will probably be a letter from you tomorrow though. I don’t think I mentioned in my last letter that I went to see “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”   It was a really good film.   The acting was superb.   I have not read the book so I cannot compare the picture with it but I thought that it was well worth seeing. Kit and I go for our interview at Kendray Hospital on Friday.   Will let you know the result afterwards. Am wri...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 8 Oct. 44 .                                                                                            216. My Own Most Precious Darling, The Army Post Office has dropped at least 200 per cent in my estimation during the last few days.   Do you know h...

2364226                                                                    Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 6 Oct. 44 .                                                                                            215. Hello, My Own Darling, The Army Post Office has let me down today.   It's our anniversary day & they haven’t sent me a letter.   Just ...

G.H.N. 5.10.4                                                              188. My Own Darling, I posted a sea-letter to you this morning but thought that I would write you this air-letter as sea letters take such an age to reach you. I hoped that there would be a letter from you this morning but there was not.   You know Dear, I am quite greedy where letters from you are concerned.   The more I get and the more I want! Yes, I do remember going into the Elephant in Doncaster with you and your Mother.   You said that you did not think that there was any harm in going into a place like that but that I would argue about that statement.   Well – no I do not.  ...

Grimethorpe 1-10-44 My Very Precious Darling, As it is Sunday evening and I have not got an air-letter left and as it is such a long time since I wrote you a sea letter and as I think that the first of the month deserves a letter as it means one month nearer our re-union – well, I thought that I would write this tonight. Mother and Dad are out at some sort of Variety show at Moorthorpe, leaving Vera and I alone.   I am sitting in the old armchair in Vera’s bedroom as I write this and a beautiful fire is burning in the grate. I have just been saying to Vera “If only Stan were sitting in this chair – “ and then my thoughts went back to nearly two years ago and the times you sat in this same chair and the times you made toast by this fire and the times we kissed in this same bedroom and oh, Darling, lots and lots of other thoughts of the little simple things we did together.   How precious those memories are to me now my Darling but when I think about them how my heart ...

2364226               Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 3 Oct. 44 .                                                                             214. Hello, My Darling I think it’s a good job I got back from Rome when I did.   Had I left it a week later I should probably have had to swim back!   As you’ll probably heard on the wireless we have been getting just a little bit more than our fair share of rain during the past few days.   Today the sun shone for the first time for about five days. Yes, Darling, I sympathise with...