Stan and Grace

234226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces  14 Jul 44                                                                                                                           174.                                                  My Very Own Precious Darling, I haven’t much fresh to write about, but as I have these snaps to send you, I thought I would spend half an hour writing to you.   I always feel happy, Darling when I am putting my thoughts on paper for you. ...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces 13 July 44                                                                            173. My Own Precious Darling, The 13 th of the month has been far from an unlucky day as far as I am concerned, for to-day the postman presented me with two letters from you!   Fancy two in one day!   Its ages since that happened.   So as you can guess, I am right on top of the world today. Your description of your meanderings round the fair city of Edinburgh brought back some pleasant memories of my visit there in May ’39. I was quite...

Edinburgh 11-7-44                                                                                (148) My Own Darling, Have not received any more letters from you since I last wrote you, though I suppose my mail will be waiting for me at home. I wrote you a sea-letter and posted it on the 9 th though I suppose you will not receive it for a couple of months. Yesterday was not a very nice day.   It was cold and wet so we ended up at the pictures.   We saw Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.   I had not seen it before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Nan says that I must f...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces 10 Jul 44                                                                                        172. My Very Own Darling, Your first despatch from the “Scottish front” arrived this morning, Darling.   Two letters in two days.   It isn’t necessary to tell you how happy it made me. Yes, I should imagine that travelling in England now has become worse even than it was when I was using the trains.   Your description of the Doncaster-York-Newcastle run recalled a good...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces 9 Jul 44                                                                                         171. My Very Own Precious Darling, Today has been quite an eventful Sunday, for I have had no less than three letters, one from you, one from Vera and one from home.   Not bad going eh?   And just the right sort of thing to start the day off well! In your letter you describe the Sunday atmosphere of Grimethorpe and of No. 56 and it made me long to be there, sitting wit...

56 Brierley Road Grimethorpe Nr Barnsley                                                                                         147. 8.7.44 My Own Darling, I received an air-letter from you this morning dated June 28 th .  It had been forwarded on to me from the G.H.N.  In it you said that I would probably have started my holiday by the time it arrived. Yes – I have been on holiday a week now and it has simply flown by. I was going to write you an air-letter but found that I had run out of them and all the post-offices close for the half-day up here on Saturday. So yo...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters, 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                  170. 7 Jul 44 My Very Own Darling, I’ve just come in from the cinema after having seen Leslie Howard’s film “Pimpernel Smith”.   It’s 10.30 p.m. but so hot that I know it will take me a long time to get off to sleep, even if I try.   I’m not going to try, however, I’ll write this letter to you and then read a book.   I shall just drop off to sleep then. When I say that today has been a good day you will automatically guess that I have had a letter from you.   At the time you wrote it you were in a flur...

Edinburgh                                                                  (146) 6.7.44 My Very Own Darling, I could not let the sixth pass without writing a letter to you, though it is almost impossible as these Scotch people talk almost as much as the Welsh.   They have all been most kind to us and we have had excellent food.   In fact they hardly know there is a war on this part of the world.   Of course, Nan is an excellent cook which makes a lot of difference. Last night we went to a dance. We quite enjoyed it but the tunes they played were far from modern.   In fact some of them went back to ten years ago.   We thought they might brea...

Edinburgh                                                                                     (145) 5.7.44 My Own Darling, As the weather is not too good to-day we decided to stay in for the afternoon. We (Kit and myself) were rather late getting up yesterday so we did not go out until the afternoon.   We thought that we would do a round of the shops but we did not even cover the length of the shops in Princess Street.   Princess Street is certainly a length, is it not? In the evening we went to the pictures and saw Irene Manning, Dennis Morgan and Bruce ...

Edinburgh                                                                                     (144) 3-7-44 My Own Precious Darling, Well, as you can see, Kit and I have really arrived in Edinburgh! A letter arrived for me this morning, before I left, from you and was written on June 25 th .   It had arrived at the G.H.N. on Saturday and had been posted on to me. I was pleased to hear that you eventually received a letter from me.   I am sorry that you were kept waiting so long – I don’t think that we people have realise just how awful it must be for you o...

Grimethorpe 2-7-44                                                                       (143) My Own Precious Darling, Once again I write to you from dear, old, Grimethorpe.   It is Sunday night and I am sitting in Vera’s room by the window, writing this letter.   There is community hymn singing on the wireless and the usual “Sunday atmosphere” everywhere. I did not arrive home until Friday night – 9 p/m to be exact.   I had not even time to post your last letter before I left Nottingham so had to post it in Grimethorpe. Yesterday was an uneventful day – I did not do much.   Late in the afternoon I took Vera up to 19’...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            168. 30 Jun 44 My Very Own Darling, What a hellish day it has been to-day!   The hottest day we have had this year and quite up to the African standard.   Consequently I have been very irritable and the lads in the office here had rather a bad time today.   (Just see what you have to put up with when I come back to you & we get married). Probably my bad mood was as much due to the fact that I have felt very tired today, due to some unaccustomed ...

G.H.N.                                                                                                142 29.6.44      My Own Precious Darling, I intended writing this letter to you yesterday but I was so tired I fell fast asleep on my bed and the next thing I knew was Kit shaking me and telling me that it was time to go on duty.   You see the previous night we had a dance here and I was just ready to go to the dance when I was told that I would have to go on duty at 1 a/m. However, as I was ready for the dance I decided to go....

Letter addressed to the Nurses’ Home but forwarded to 3 Briar Bank Terrace, Edinburgh 11 2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen Med Forces                                                                            167. 28 Jun 44 My Very Own Darling, I suppose that by the time you receive this you will have started your holiday & will no doubt be at Grimethorpe. As I lay on the silvery sand of our swimming beach this afternoon in the sunlight I was thinking how perfectly heavenly it would have been if you could have shipped over to Italy and stayed with me for a month. I must hav...