Friday
Devonport
Darling,
As you will see from the paper, I haven’t completely lost my touch as a scrounger. I managed to get hold of a couple of pads and a notebook in case we go on this course and find we have to buy our own, which was the case at Aberdeen. On the train journey I was lucky enough to find a carriage where four people and a boy were doing their best to keep a whole compartment to themselves. I settled in there and soon after leaving Liverpool out went the lights and we all managed to get a few hours’ sleep, but sleep in a railway coach is not very refreshing, especially when there’s a draft blowing on one side of your neck! What with just leaving home and having a cold, I must confess I don’t feel quite on top of the world today. Tomorrow I’ll go to sick bay and get some dope inside me. I’ll probably feel a good deal better after a sleep and some treatment.
We got a through train again and got here – in barracks that is – before 12.30 which was quite good. I didn’t find any of the lads on the train but they were all back within an hour of each other and we have spent this afternoon in traditional naval fashion, hiding ourselves in odd corners and getting our gear out of store. I hear, by the way, that two or three more lads have followed the Aberdeen–Devonport trail but they have gone on leave today and apparently left just before we got in. Harry Forman and Ray Greatham [??] (the bloke who went on compassionate leave) have both gone to HMS Caballa, so we are finding our ranks dwindling, especially as some of the lads who came down here with me are going in for different courses and were on draft within a couple of hours of getting here. We will probably be gone before the other lads come back from leave.
Well, darling, there’s not a lot of real news just now but I wanted to drop you a note as soon as I could, because perhaps I didn’t mention the fact that I love you. Oh, precious, I do hope you are feeling less “bluey” by the time you get this. A thousand thanks, darling, for all you did to make the leave worthwhile. It was certainly not your fault that things went awry on occasion and the best times of the leave were spent with you. Many thanks for all the nice things you did and said. It meant everything to me. And don’t forget, there’s only a few weeks to go! And, remembering that, see to it that vapours are right on schedule!
How is Wendy? I do hope she’s better. If she goes on improving as she was doing, she should be alright by the end of the week. Get out all you can, now, and get sunshine stored up in your system for the winter.
Now I must be off to catch the post. My love to Wendy and Michael. I hope he is behaving himself as well as while I was at home. Bye, my precious, I do love you.
All my love, darling. Ever,
Arthur X
Jul 171942