Stan and Grace

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 19 Sep. 44 .                                                                                               206. My Very Own Precious Darling, You must forgive me for not having written to you for such a long time – four days to be precise, but I know that to you waiting in England for a letter, it will seem much longer – but I have been travelling for 2½ days, reaching the “Eternal City” yesterday lunchtime.  Since then I have been busy sightseeing and am so utterly tired that I am havin...

G.H.N. 17.9.44                                                                      179 My Most Precious Darling, The A.P.O. certainly made up for their four days lapse by delivering yet another letter from you yesterday. In your letter Dear you said that you did not think that you would be home for at least another year.   I have tried to look at the situation sensibly and I too realise that.   I agree with you – we have to face up to facts.   Of course, one can always keep on hoping that a miracle may happen and that you might get home before. I have just written a short letter to your Mother telling her that I have changed my...

G.H.N. 15.9.44                                                                      178 My Most Precious Darling, As I thought, the A.P.O. were responsible for the delay with your letters but they have made up for it by delivering two letters from you.   One written Sept 4 th and one on Sept 6 th . Pleased to hear about your meeting with an old H.G.S. boy.   It must give you a grand feeling to meet somebody from your “home-town”. The news these days is almost too good to be true, isn’t it Darling?   As good as it is though I am afraid that I still get impatient for the war to end.   This parting of ours is certainly a test...

 In his letter of 13 September, Stan told Grace that he had received a letter from his sister, Janet, who was writing to let him know that his mother had gone to Cottingham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the previous day as their Grandmother was 'very weak'. Stan's Grandmother was Annie Lettice Spink (nee Farr) and, unbeknown at this time to Stan, his Grandmother had died on 12 September.  She was 75 years old and died of kidney failure and heart disease. Annie was born and grew up in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, where her father, John, ran an ironmonger's business.  In the mid-1880's John gave up the business and the family moved to Luton.  Annie and her older sister, Nellie, later moved to become 'Asylum Attendants' at the Hull Borough Lunatic Asylum, which was in  Cottingham.  It was here that Annie met and married Harry Edward Spink, who was also an Asylum Attendant.  They lived in Cottingham for the rest of their lives. The couple had two da...

  G.H.N. 13.9.44                                                                      177 My Most Precious Darling, The A.P.O. is not up to its usual standard this week as it has not delivered as yet, an air-letter from you.   A letter from you my Beloved makes all the difference in the world to my day.   The sun does not shine for me when there is no letter from you.   I do hope that you are keeping well Darling and that there is nothing wrong at all – or that they are not working you too hard. Here I am, getting queer ideas into my head when I am sure that it is negligence on the A.P.O.’s part.   The trouble is that yo...

G.H.N. 11.9.44                                                                                               176 My Very Precious Darling, The book which you promised to send me has followed closely behind your letter in which you told me you were sending it, for it arrived at lunch time to-day. Thank you Darling.   I got quite a thrill out of just reading your inscription on the first page – only five words but they seemed so intimate and conveyed such a lot to me.   When we meet again I shall have such a lot to thank you for in the proper way. At the moment ...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 10 Sep. 44 .                                                                          202. My Very Own Precious Darling, What a day its been to-day!   Our little town has really been gay, for to-day has been the biggest “festa” of the year and the last of the summer months, the Feast of the Madonna, and its been a real gala day.   Now it's close on midnight, but there’s “sounds of revelry by night” (to quote the poet) still drifting into my bedroom on the cool night air. The proceedings started early this morning with the religious par...

G.H.N. 9.9.44             My Very Precious Darling, Ivy and I have just returned from a very enjoyable evening out.   We have been to the Albert Hall to hear the Halle Orchestra.   Darling, I wish you could have been with me.   I know that you would have enjoyed it as much as I did.   The music was really delightful. The piece which really thrilled me was Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no: 4 in F minor but it is hopeless for me to try and explain to you what it was really like – all I know is that I was simply carried away with the whole thing.   It is the very first time I have ever been to a Symphony Concert but it will not be the last. As Ivy and I will not be here together for much longer we decided to make an evening of it and we went to the County Hotel where we had a very nice dinner. To-day has been a very good day altogether as I have received two letters from you my Dear.   One arrived thi...

Note to readers - this is the second letter from Stan written on the 6 September.  Scroll down on the main blog page for letters written on the 6th from both Stan and Grace.   2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 6 Sep. 44 .                                                                                               201. My Very Own Precious Darling, It was very troubling to receive your letter this morning and find that everything was so unsatisfactory with regard to your immediate future.  Whilst...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 6 Sep. 44 .                                                                                                200. My Very Own Precious Darling, Quite a day today!   Our anniversary and my 200 th letter to you.   The APO commemorated it suitably by delivering a letter from you so I am quite happy considering the circumstances; at least as happy as I ever will be until the day when we are together again. There’s the usual complaint, lack of news, about the only thing I’...

G.H.N. 4.9.44 My Very Own Darling, A letter arrived from you this morning dated Aug:27 th .   Your letters mean everything to me Darling – they are the brightest spots of my existence whilst you are away. As you say in your letter August was certainly a month of events.   Let us hope that September is even more eventful – if the happenings of these first few days are anything to go by. All I want my Darling is to get this war over quickly and have you home again.   I never thought that I could miss anybody as much as I have missed you. Once again I have been to see the Appointments Officer for the Ministry of Labour.   I told her that I was not going to Belper.   Kit came with me as we had both decided that we would go to Hull – we had been told that the Fever Hospital there was a good training school.   However, she had not any vacancies at Hull and asked us if we would go to Grimsby as there were vacancies there, so we said that we would. ...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 3 Sep. 44 .                                                                                                 197. My Very Own Precious Darling, During past weeks my Sunday letter to you has usually been written on the beach, but to-day “rain stopped play” has far as swimming was concerned, a terrific thunderstorm broke after lunch & is still raging as I sit on my bed scribbling this. The Army Post Office performed according to schedule today & I’ve just had your letter ...

2364226 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 15 L of C Signals Cen. Med. Forces 1 Sep. 44 .                                                                            197. My Very Own Sweet Darling, The start of another month!   How the time passes, doesn’t it, very slowly, but none the less surely. Let’s hope that the war continues with the same speed as it has done during this past month. I had a letter from you this morning Darling and was very thrilled to read your admission that you were ready for marriage & that it could not come too quickly.   What a happy change from your outlook on life two ...

  Stan often wrote quite long descriptive letters to his parents which they passed on to their friend Arthur Moseley, who ran the South Elmsall office of the 'South Yorkshire Times' where Stan had trained as a journalist.  In this way his experiences found their way into the newspaper a couple of weeks later. You may remember from an earlier letter that Stan was telling Grace about an Italian football match.  Below is the full description written for the South Yorkshire Times, date unknown: FOOTBALL IN ITALY Former "Times" Reporter's Impressions The humour and excitement of football in Italy are described in an amusing letter from Sergt. Stanley Bristow, a former "South Yorkshire Times" junior reporter at South Elmsall. Mentioning that football matches have become quite an integral part of his Sunday evenings, he continues:  "During the nine months we have been in this township quite a number of the lads have become keen supporters of th...