Arthur & Stella

Monday
R.N. Unit, The Hollies Hotel, Whitchurch
Dearest,
Back to normal routine letters once more. Many thanks for your letter, which I picked up at the Post Office this morning. We spent all day yesterday waiting for people who never arrived and are repeating the performance today. Our only visitor of importance yesterday was the railway carter, who brought 100 blankets. We put a pile of them on the floor for a bed and so were able to sleep here instead of having to find digs, which will put a few bob in our pockets! In all there were four of us yesterday – a very decent officer from Whitehall who left us more or less to our own devices and who has gone back today until a week on Thursday; a new P.O. who is easy to get on with and who is all for making money on the exes; a cook who has nothing to cook, nothing to cook on, and nothing to cook in at the moment; and little me. We are here to receive the bedding, furniture and mess traps; to see that the water is turned on, the gas and electric turned on, to order coal and coke; and to see that two civvy labourers who are coming do their job properly. In short, to see that the place is made really comfortable for the lads to live in when they do come. They will live here and work at the station about a quarter of a mile away. If they look after this place it should be a home from home. As I told you yesterday, it was formerly a private hotel and everyone round here says it was a really beautiful place. The grounds and glass houses have gone to rack and ruin now, but there are grapes, peaches and tomatoes in the greenhouses and against one wall of the cottage attached to the place is the most lovely pear tree I have ever seen, absolutely laden with what will be really choice dessert pears. All these, of course, are out of bounds and the officer has made a promise her property shall be respected. I, for one, won’t touch the stuff because she says it is grown for exhibition and that the fruit will be spoiled if pulled before it is ripe. She has promised to give the lads free access to it once it is ripe, but threatens dire penalties if anyone raids it before she gives the word “go”. And that, I think, is a very reasonable viewpoint, don’t you? I can’t see me getting any of the grapes, but with a bit of luck some of the pears may be ready before I go, although I think these King Williams don’t ripen properly until fairly late autumn. There are also two hard tennis courts here, which I expect our lads will be able to rent next season, and what has obviously been a nice back lawn which they can have the use of if they care to look after it. This dame seems to me a reasonable but practical woman who has come to distrust all the services because of the way the previous army occupant left the place 18 months ago. And I don’t blame her!
Now there you have the full story. I tapped our officer – Grossett – this morning about attaching me here permanently and he was all for it, but seemed to think that our old man in Whitehall wouldn’t wear it. He thinks that three weeks is about the limit, but he’s given me the weekend from some time Friday until Monday morning, so you can expect me home on Friday night certain! As you say – whoopee!
Now I won’t have time to answer all the points in your letter except to say I’m sorry that the children were so disappointed over the sports. It is a shame!
Now I must go. All my love, sweetheart. I’m trying hard not to anticipate Friday too much, but he – sorry, it – is hard, very hard!
Bye for now. My love to the children and behave yourself until Friday.
Ever your own,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Two minutes after posting your letter yesterday I got your last letter to Whitehall which had been forwarded to the wireless station down the road and was brought up here by hand. So that will settle your mind on that score. I don’t think there’s anything which needs an urgent answer, but I am glad to hear of your success with the duck manure. It is definitely stronger than farmyard stuff and is not suitable for some crops, but I should think a good idea would be to make a separate pile of it and if you are going to give a winter dressing to any of the vacant spots which are a bit poor in manure, you could spread that on the top and dig it in in spring. Anyway, we can talk about things like that on Friday – tomorrow! Will you think up any jobs you want doing while I’m home? One thing I will try to do is clear up the manure heap for you.
I was specially pleased to hear that the trike is back in commission again. Yes, you get 2/- per par in the ‘Day to Day’.
By the way, keep your hay spread out, not in a stack, to dry it.
There’s no need to say that I’m sorry about vapours – doubly sorry – but, like you, I’m never going to let it worry me again. That, too, we can talk over when I’m home. I’m sorry I can’t state any definite time of arrival but it depends on so many things here as to what time I can get away. As the stuff has been held up and is just beginning to arrive today, instead of Monday and Tuesday, we are well behind. We are held up mainly because none of the cleaning material has arrived, so that even if furniture does come we can’t arrange it permanently until the rooms have been cleaned out properly. If there is no cleaning material by noon tomorrow I MIGHT be able to get away then. We are situated right on the main road to Chester and Liverpool so I’m going to try hitching it instead of walking down to the station and waiting anything up to two hours for a train. So all I can say is that I might be home any time from about two onwards, but don’t wait dinner for me because things are too uncertain. Do you think you can arrange for Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights out? I’ll leave that with you.
Now I must do some work. Bye, sweetheart. See you tomorrow! All my love to you and the children.
Ever
Arthur X

Wednesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Perhaps I’d better begin at the end of your letter so as to be sure of getting it answered. First of all, a nark. You swore to me that there was nothing worrying you and there was. I knew all the time you were lying even with all your protestations, but I decided to let it be. As I evidently couldn’t get it from you then, I decided it would come out sooner or later, but I’m disappointed because I would much sooner get these things settled in person rather than by letter. Anyway, here goes. Many months ago, probably in a moment of depression, I warned you that you would probably find that I had changed from the time I first went away. Well I probably have and that will to some extent account for a feeling that I don’t “belong” there any more. Nor, to be honest, do I belong there. Now, and until I’m out of uniform, I belong to the navy. No matter what mental barriers I erect against it, I can’t keep the navy out when they can and do control my life 24 hours a day. That has something to do with it and I think you will find most servicemen suffer consciously or unconsciously from it to some extent. But this is only one thing – the mental background, so to speak. Perhaps at the back of my mind is a form of resentment at being dragged away from Morningside, and each time I come home I’m reminded of how much I’m missing. The children, for instance, are growing up, forming new ideas, making new friends and slowly developing their characters. In all of this I have no share – except to make Wendy cry twice in three days! You make friends who bolt as soon as they see me! Now all of this, you may say, has nothing to do with the house, but it has, for the house is the place where it is all happening and I’m quite sure that if, when the war is over and I come home for the last time, I am certain that my job will allow us to remain in that house then I’ll take more interest in it than ever. Any house where you and the children are will always be home to me. But I wonder if you can see that all this mixture of resentment against the present and uncertainty about the future makes it difficult for me to take a really keen interest in the house?
Now, as to your side of it. For one thing you should never have made yourself so ill in doing the kitchen. That was sheer lunacy, which did nothing to make me happier, did it? Almost it was a venomous expression of spite against our joint failure to fulfil your deep desire. But one of the worst sides of your story is the implication that if I had never commented on the state of the kitchen you would never have bothered about it! Surely, love, that isn’t so, is it? If it is then it means you have lost interest even more than I have. My lack of interest, such as it is, originates wholly in the fact that I know whenever I come home that I’m only there for a few days, whereas you have the incentive of living there constantly.
Dearest, I’m not very sure that I’ve said the right thing in the right way in this letter – there have been a dozen or more interruptions in the course of it – but let me sum up like this: Morningside is still home to me; I’ll admit I’m not as interested as I was because I feel whenever I’m home that I haven’t time to do all that I’d like to do in it and so, very often, I end up by not doing anything. But you must also believe that once I get home for good – or even if I get a permanent post near enough to be home regularly – that interest would very soon revive and I’m sure of this, that when I am home for good I’ll take more interest in the home than ever I did. If I’ve given you the impression that your hard work in the home is not appreciated, I’m sorry love, because I DO appreciate it very deeply. In defence of my criticism of the house I can only say they really prove I AM interested! YOU haven’t gone wrong anywhere, it’s ME with my selfish attitude that, simply because “I can’t be at home sometimes for months on end then I’m not going to be as interested as I was”. It’s wrong to say I’m not interested or that I don’t belong. My interest may have waned a little through being away, but I think that’s all that has happened so for goodness sake don’t you lose interest or we ARE sunk!
Darling, I’m sorry about all this and even more sorry that you evaded the issue when I was home and knew there was something on your mind, for it is very difficult to thrash these things out satisfactorily on paper. I only hope I’ve not made things worse! I hate to think of you being made miserable through my selfishness or even thoughtlessness and this is the part of being away from home that makes me more unhappy than anything else.
Many thanks for your letter, love, and for the amusing account of the cats in the pram. Now you have got your feet in with “Day to Days”, try to keep it up. One every other day means an extra 6/- a week. I know you don’t really need the money, but…! Another good point is that looking for a par like that every other day will be a good mental exercise.
There is little to tell you from here except to say that when I got back on Monday I found all the cleaning materials – hard soap, disinfectant, scouring powder, long-handled scrubbers, brooms and brushes, scrubbing brushes, floor cloths – 70 yards of it – and three dozen buckets, as well as two zinc baths had arrived. So there was no excuse for further laziness and in the last three days we have had an orgy of cleaning. My hands are raw with the effects of soda etc. Is there anything special you’d like in this line? Let me know and if possible I’ll try to get it for you. If I can’t, well it can’t be helped. Don’t worry, I won’t take any risks. As I told you yesterday, I can’t do anything about the weekend until after tomorrow. If the officer wants me to work over the weekend on stores with him it will be too bad, but I won’t be able to grumble because we had such a lazy time during our first week here. Anyway, if you have made a phone date with me for Friday I should be able to give you a good idea then.
Bye for now, angel. Hope you are feeling better now. My love to the children. All my love to you, sweetheart.
Always your own,
Arthur X

Friday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
I’m sorry to hear about the table. From what you say it is in a pretty bad state but I’ll have a look at it when I come home. It’s no good grieving about it. The only thing is that it points out the need for a fire insurance of some sort. You’d better ask about it, I think.
I envy you your day on the shore. It seems ages since I was there last and even longer, almost in another existence, since we had a day at the baths together.
As I said yesterday, after seeing the crowds on even small stations any possible trip here on Sunday is definitely off. You know how small Whitchurch station is. Well, it took me a solid five minutes to walk half the length of the platform when carrying the officer’s suitcase. It was solid with people and our officer tells me that many people were left behind at Crewe! That station was in absolute turmoil. If you did come, the day would be spoiled for me because I’d be worrying about how you would get home again and the children would be tired out before the day was half over.
One of the first things Grossett told me when he arrived was that I was here “for a little longer” but that he had been unable, as yet, to persuade Mylward, at Whitehall, to transfer me to the books here. But he added, “I haven’t given up all hope although it looks fairly hopeless at the moment”. Anyway, he’s going to do all he can and has succeeded in avoiding having to send me back to Whitehall this weekend as Mylward wanted him to do. Personally, I have my doubts about him being able to get hold of me permanently.
I’m writing this before dinner and at the moment cannot tell you what that chances for the weekend are likely to be. I may not know even today because we are still hanging on waiting for stores to arrive and are still without beds although mattresses did arrived yesterday.
Later: The beds – two-tier metal bunks which have to be bolted together – have arrived and they hold out the prospect of so much work that I doubt if I’ll be able to get away at the weekend. But failing that I think Grossett will let me away for a couple of days during the week as he mentioned this as an alternative yesterday. That, of course, would do next weekend in completely as the P.O. here wants to get away on a long weekend then. If Grossett can keep me here until then, however, travelling may have eased off a bit and perhaps you could all come over then. If only these damned beds, which have been on the railway since the 20th, had arrived two days earlier I should have been away this afternoon until Tuesday morning! If at the last minute I can get away I will, so when you go out leave a note to say where you are but DON’T stay in for me as I doubt if I can make it. Bye, angel.
All my love,
Arthur X

Tuesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Another short note I’m afraid as we have been busy attending to the fitting of the blackout – every window and the doors at the front even on railway runners – and I’m sorry to say there isn’t a square inch over!
I had a very pleasant day yesterday at the fete and thought of you continually as it was strongly reminiscent of the Monday at the May Day with its pony show, dog show, rabbit show, and horse and pony jumping. I kept thinking how you and the children would have enjoyed it. The weather was very good and there was a big crowd. Later we heard they had raised about £2,000 for the RAF Benevolent Fund. To finish up the night I went for a few beers and found myself being treated by the winning tug-of-war team, and finally I wangled into a 3/- dance without paying. An enjoyable day and night!
There’s still no news of the weekend but I’m hoping that I’ll be OK.
Bye for now. My love to everyone. And all my love to you, sweetheart.
Ever,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
I’m glad to hear that you are taking proper care of yourself and not taking any chances on getting a fresh cold or getting further run down. By now you will have seen the doctor again and I’m going to be very interested in what he has to say. I’m far from satisfied that you are properly on your feet yet and it’s funny that this should have happened so soon after my saying so to you last time I was home. You looked really well at the end of that liver extract course and I did hope you’d be able to maintain that improvement.
I went over to Wrexham to try to see Dot but missed her by ten minutes and, in the dark, missed the way home with the result that I was riding all over Shropshire from 10.30 to 2a.m.! In that time I was thinking a lot about you and was really worried, but this morning I made a determined effort to put the whole matter out of my mind until I get home – an effort in which I only partially succeeded.
I’ve just seen Grossett and I can get away tomorrow afternoon so I should be home about four or soon afterwards and I don’t have to be back here until Monday, so that will give me three clear nights at home. During the weekend I’ll be able to do a few things for you and that will perhaps give you a chance to get a bit more rest.
I have sent a parcel off this afternoon. I’m afraid it doesn’t contain many of the things you want, but there may be some useful things in it. If I get a chance I’ll send or bring some more with me.
I don’t think there’s a lot more to say except that I’ll be glad when it’s time to get on the road tomorrow, for I’m anxious to see you and hold you again. Soon after you get this I’ll be with you once more. My love to the children. Bye until tomorrow, sweetheart, and all my love.
Ever,
Arthur X

Tuesday
Whitchurch
Darling,
There’s a very grave doubt as to whether this will reach you by the morning, but I’m making a desperate effort.
I got back here in good time – just before 10.30 – and the boss seemed to appreciate it. Soon after I got here he sent for me and said that Mylward, of Admiralty, had said I could stay here “for a time” as they were not very short of staff. So I have been officially made office boy – a job I think I’m going to like once we get some proper equipment; and once we get on top of the initial accumulation of work things it should be very pleasant.
We have struck one snag which may prove very difficult – the question of expenses for the first couple of weeks we were here. Admiralty are questioning them and we may be in for a spot of trouble. Anyway, we won’t hear anything for another week and after that I’ll let you know. In the meantime, not a word to anyone!
Many thanks, angel, for a very nice weekend. Do continue to look after yourself, won’t you? I do hope these injections will really be a success. My love to the children. All my love, sweet.
Ever,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
We went harvesting last night and I found it quite a pleasant experience. The farm, as you might have guessed, is one attached to a pub! The woman whose husband owns both pub and farm is an invalid so we carried her about half a mile over the fields in her bath chair to watch us at work. They have only been out here a year and, as she had never been so far, she was thrilled to bits. A young farmer was mowing when we got there and we made an immediate start stacking the sheaves. I found it warm work but not too tiring as there were quite a few of us and we spent quite a bit of time waiting for the tractor to bind enough for us to stack. There’s more to it than I thought, but I think that as this was the first experience for many of us we didn’t do too badly. The results would have been more satisfactory in some ways, I think, if there had been fewer of us. We were hoping to find a few rabbits in the oats – that was the crop! – when we got near the centre, but we only saw two all night and I must say I wasn’t sorry when they both got away from the howling mob. Apparently there were signs that a couple of foxes and a badger had been through the oats and that evidently scared the rabbits out. We finished well after ten o’clock but went back to the pub and had a couple of pints on the house. There was to have been bread and cheese as well, for they applied for an extra cheese ration for harvesting purposes, but it failed to appear. We may go to help with the corn tonight if we can make it. Perhaps we’ll have more luck with the rabbits, for last night was a “sore disappointment” to the lads.
This is the major new of the last 24 hours, but this morning I gave the lads a hand with weeding the drive. Since they have been here they have made a wonderful difference to the appearance of the front of the house and now we are working on the drive at the side, which is lined on the one hand with a narrow rockery and flower border, and on the other with a little shrubbery. When all this has been done we have to tackle the lawn and rose arbours at the back, as well as some quite nice but badly overgrown borders. The lawn, for instance, was waist deep in hay when we first came, but that was scythed some time ago. Now we are waiting for our lawn mower and other gardening tools to arrive and we are already in negotiation for the use of a piece of ground for an allotment! So you’ll see we are going all horticultural – if interest doesn’t drop after a week or two.
So Auntie Amy kept you away from your Guinness? She’s got no conscience, has she? I hope you gave May my love. How is she now? Did you have a nice time, and when exactly will you be back from Chris’s? Anyway, I’ll write each day.
We touched out for a radio today, which the lads consider a boon at the moment, but may curse when they start watch-keeping and want to sleep during the day.
No more news now. Hope the children are well and behaving themselves. Give them my love. All my love to you, angel. Don’t forget those injections. How did the second one take? Bye till tomorrow.
Ever yours,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Sorry I didn’t write yesterday and still more sorry to say this will only be four or five lines. The mail bag I mentioned in my last letter brought a big parcel which meant a solid month’s work. I’ve been working until nine each night to make up for my loafing day. It’s very doubtful if I’ll be home at the weekend but I’ll know better tomorrow. Once more – sorry love, but that’s how it is just now!
All my love, sweet. Sorry about vapours. Don’t overdo things, will you?
Ever,
Arthur X

Tuesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
There’s only a few minutes to post-time so I won’t be able to write very much. I had a helluva wait for the bus and didn’t get into town until after 9 o’clock! Which means that it took me an hour and a quarter from the house! I eventually did the journey from the Tunnel to Whitchurch in a little less than two hours. One of my lifts was in an R.A.F. ambulance in which was a R.A.F. bloke who had been shot into the sea and was adrift in a dinghy for 11 days. He was just going to hospital to be discharged for sick leave. After leaving the ambulance I was given a lift by some American officers and finished the journey in a manure-laden lorry!
We have had definite news that the Admiral is coming on Monday so I rather fancy this weekend is off, but I’ll let you know.
How are you feeling now? Did vapours return again? I do hope you’re feeling better than you looked on Saturday. Bye for now, angel. All my love to you.
Ever,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Many thanks indeed for your letter and the snaps from Eric. The “Can I go now” one is very good, isn’t it? I think it would enlarge beautifully. Did you get only one of these? I think it is the best snap I have seen of Michael. I’ll try to write to them this weekend, and to several other people as well. It is quite definite, by the way, that I won’t be home this weekend, so you can make your mind up on that point. If you do see Harold, give my salaams and tell him I’m sorry to have missed him again, won’t you? We seem fated to keep missing each other. The old man was very apologetic about having to ask me to scrub round my weekend this time, but feels that one of us should be here at all times because anything might happen, and, apart from him, I know most about the office.
I’m so glad to hear that you really are feeling better. Don’t forget to go to the surgery on Wednesday – that was yesterday, wasn’t it! I’m all mixed up this week. By now, of course, you’ll have had the last of the injections and will be feeling better for them, I hope. I do so want you to get fighting fit once more.
Sometime during the next week I must have a look round to see if I can find anything for Michael’s birthday. I did hope to be able to make that confounded signal for him when I came home this weekend, but it doesn’t look as if that will be possible now.
About your jars – can’t you store some on the floor in Michael’s room? I should think they’d keep all right there.
I had a word with the P.O. in charge of the slops list when I came back on Monday and he promised not to be too exacting in his examination of my pay book so I was able to order a gaberdine, a pair of slippers, white shirts and collars and two pair of pyjamas which, with sundry odds and ends, will come to about £4! Still, it will be money well spent, I hope. I’m going to lay hands on all the clothes that will be useful in civvy street. If I’m up here long I should be able to build up quite a stock of things, which will mean that I’ll be saving money in having a good stock of civvy clothes. If possible I’d like a dozen shirts and an equal number of sets of underclothes, as well as shoes, hankies, pyjamas etc. There is no doubt all these things will be controlled when the war is over.
Now, love, I must go. Bye for now. All my love to you.
Ever your own,
Arthur X

Monday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Sorry to hear about the bed and I do wish I could get over there but at the moment it looks pretty difficult. I can’t borrow bikes for a long ride like that because now that the whole crew are here the fellows who have bikes won’t lend them out on the grounds that if they do it for one they’ll have to do it for everyone. The train is pretty hopeless too, and the only possible chance I would have would be to go there during the weekend by hitchhike. Isn’t the railway company the best way of getting it home? I know it might take a long time, for some of our stores coming by goods train have taken as long as a fortnight to get here from places in Lancashire. However, you make up your mind which you would sooner do and let me know by return. Did the bed you saw include the mattress, or was that just for the bed alone? I can let you have the money out of the remainder of the bonus and will you also remind me to let you have the balance of the money for your shoes? Be sure and let me know what you decide by return of post because my status here is still very uncertain and I’d like to get this settled very soon.
The Admiral paid us his long-awaited visit today and with him came one of the officers from Whitehall. The one who is the immediate chief of the fellow in charge of our wireless station. My draft chit to return to London has not arrived yet, but Grossett is going to speak to Bonham Carter – that’s the Whitehall bloke – about it tonight when he has dinner with him. Grossett himself wants the thing cleared up because he is fed up with this uncertainty. He wants to know where he stands and will certainly do all he can to get things settled in my favour. As soon as I hear anything definite I’ll let you know. At the moment things are going very well indeed and the official visit today has gone all in favour of the station. The old boy was apparently very pleased with everything he saw and especially with the fact that the lads have made such an effort to get this place looking decent. He is going to make every effort to get a cottage, which is attached to this place and which has been empty some time, for our use, as well as the attics which at the present moment are jammed with Mrs Taylor’s furniture. If he gets all that for us then we will have a lot more room, for the P.O.s will go and live in the cottage, which will give us more room, and some of the lads will go to sleep in the attics which will also leave a lot more room in the present bedrooms. So, one way and another, Grossett is feeling like a dog with two tails.
As you will have guessed by the tone of this letter I am hoping to be able to get home next weekend, but that is not by any means certain. If I’m still here I most certainly will be home but, as you know, that it is still in the lap of the gods and we can only hope for the best. I have already made arrangements to bring a little fruit home if I am coming, and if I am still here on Wednesday night I will go into a local where I usually see the lad who is going to give me this lot and tell him that I will still be in the market for them. Last weekend I saw him and he then promised to let me have some. On Sunday I saw him and told him it was not at all certain that I should still be here at the end of the week. As he is going to bring the stuff in on Thursday night, I’ll have to leave word on the Wednesday that I still want it. A bit complicated but you have to do all these things well in advance. I even arranged to pick them up on the Thursday in case Grossett decides fairly late on Friday that I can get away on Friday night if I want to do so. I haven’t even mentioned the question of a weekend yet, as indeed I can’t do with things in their present uncertain state, but what I have done is to ask Grossett if he will make an effort to get my leave granted from here instead of from London if I am going to be recalled. That is as much as I can do from here at the moment.
And that, sweetheart, is about all the news for today. I do hope that you’re feeling better and that you’re still looking after yourself properly. Have you taken your tablets regularly?
Give my love to the children. I will have a look round here to see if there is anything that I can bring for Michael. I should like to give him a puppy but we have thrashed all that out before. I am not very optimistic about the chances here though, as there is not a decent shop in the town apart from the W.H. Smith’s. Do you think a decent book would be at all in his line? They seem to have so many books, though, don’t they? Now he is starting school, however, he might take a keener interest in them than he has done so far.
Now I must be off, angel. Bye until tomorrow. All my love, dearest.
Ever your own,
Arthur X

Wednesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Many thanks for your letter today and I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling better. I know what you mean by saying that you feel as if you had been in that state for weeks. Anyway, I hope that you will have no ill effects from it.
There is not very much news today but we have been very busy and it looks as if we are going to be up to our eyes in it for some time. That, of course, is all to the good so far as I am concerned because it means that I am learning stuff which may come in useful sometime if I am ever moved from here and also that there is a much stronger case for keeping me here.
Sorry this is going to be such a scrappy note, but I’m still very busy and it is after 7 o’clock and I want to get finished in order to catch the late collection from the G.P.O. There is nothing definite about Friday as yet beyond the fact that I will be able to get away sometime on Friday afternoon or evening, which means that I will be home probably six or sevenish. If I can get away about four I will do so without waiting for tea.
That’s all for now. Bye, angel. See you on Friday unless there is something very drastic turns up. Take care of yourself. All my love.
Ever,
Arthur X

Tuesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
A very hurried note indeed, just to say how-do and to hope that you have managed to weather the storm in celebration of the birthday of the heir to the Johnson fortunes.
Hope the rabble have not been too much for you and that you are continuing to maintain the improvement you showed during the weekend. I’m looking forward to hearing from you in the morning as to how Michael settled down at school and I only hope that there were no last minute snags. From the way he was going on during the weekend it seemed an absolute cert that he would be OK, but then you never can tell.
I’m also looking forward to hearing how the party went off.
Sorry this is so rushed but it can’t be helped as I’m still up to my eyes in it. I’ll be home this weekend but only from Saturday and the odds are that I shan’t be home at all the following week.
We got one of our official bikes today. A brand new wartime Raleigh. It is a bit heavy just yet, but we are going to give it a good oiling and then it should be OK.
Bye, love. Take care of yourself.
All my love,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
I have my doubts as to whether this will get to the Post Office in time, but I will have a shot at it. We are getting busier than ever and there is a full day’s work every day from about 8.30 until 7 o’clock at the earliest – and that only allows something less than half an hour for each meal. I can work much better when the boss is out for he is a devil for chattering and he tells me all sorts of things he never mentions to the P.O.s, which is all to the good for he has come to the conclusion that I am that rare bird – the man who knows when to keep his mouth shut. In fact he told me not long ago that he had been to some pains in the first couple of weeks to discover whether or not I discussed outside what happened in the office. There is one thing these officers hate and that is the thought that they cannot discuss anything in the office without the whole station knowing about it.
Among the latest arrivals is another fellow who was on his honeymoon when he was recalled from his leave to come here. That is two we have got out of a total of 30. Four of them, including this lad, were on foreign service leave – after being abroad for three solid years – when they were recalled to come here. I will say this for the boss, he is doing all he can for them and even taken the chance of dropping in the cart himself in order to let this “bridegroom” get back to his lady-love this weekend. The result is, of course, that most of the lads will back him up to the hilt, even in the short time they have known him.
Last night we felt we ought to celebrate the exit of the Iti’s and I had quite a few drinks with the result that when we got back here I got involved, as I have never done before, in a heated political argument punctuated, as usual, with many references to spheroids! I got under the skin of a few of the lads, but generally speaking most of them enjoyed the fun.
Many thanks for the account of the party. I can never understand why it is that the girls eat so much more than the lads, for the reputations are generally the other way round, aren’t they? Did Johnnie make himself sick again? I can well imagine the Howell lad being the best mannered of the lot. She strikes you that way somehow, doesn’t she? Michael seemed to do well out of the presents and I am glad that he liked the hammering set. Perhaps he will now settle down to a normal life and start eating all his meals properly.
I am trying to get some fruit this weekend but I won’t make any promises after what happened last week and I know that you were disappointed. Anyway, don’t say anything to the children because when I came home last week I was met by our youngsters and half a dozen others. Wendy announced that I was bringing apples and pears home and Cynthia and a few others came obviously to join in the share-out. That’s all for now, sweet. All my love and take care of yourself.
Ever,
Arthur X

Tuesday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
Yesterday being the thirteenth, something bad had to happen to me – and it did! Mylward was on the phone trying to get hold of Grossett, but he happened to be out at the time and the result was that there was an official signal made demanding the return of Sig Johnson to Whitehall by pm Thursday. Apparently three of the lads are on draft. The last lot to go were Wrens, it seems. Jock hasn’t been able to do anything because the lines are out of order following the thunderstorm on Monday, which was evidently worse there than it was up our way. When he finally got through today he discovered that it is Mylward’s day off. It would be! If we can get over this point for the time being we should get some definite ruling on Thursday because Commander Bonham Carter is coming up then. The snag is that if I have to go back then I will be gone about half an hour before he gets here. If I have to go, Jock is going to see if I can have my long leave from here starting Thursday or Friday. If that can be managed, it will save me a few bob. Is there any money in the old oak chest, by the way, for I am hard up now and I won’t get my victualling allowance until after leave.
Will you let me know the answer by return, just in case I am going to be home at the weekend? We got our slops on Monday. The quickest we have ever had them, and for the first time I got almost everything I put down for, including two sets of pyjamas and a gabardine, as well as two white shirts and half a dozen semi-stiff collars. These, with a pair of leather slippers and some other odds and ends cost me about £4-10s, so you can understand why I’m hard up. Although I have had perhaps a few more drinks here than in London, that is the only thing I have spent any money on and now I’m down to rock bottom on a reduced wage for a week or two until I pay back the arrears of what I owe them.
That is all the news, love, except that if I am lucky and can dodge this lot again I will not be home at the weekend as Grossett is definitely going. Anyway, everything is in the air and may not be straightened out before the end of the week, so don’t make any definite arrangements one way or the other. Must go, love. Many thanks for a nice weekend and I hope vapours have started because if not they may spoil our long leave! Bye, love. My love to you and the children.
Ever your own,
Arthur X

Thursday
Whitchurch
Dearest,
A very brief note today for there’s much to be done. I’ve spent half the morning making up parcels to myself and to you for I can’t possibly carry all the stuff I have accumulated. I’m sending two parcels to you with various things in them. Will you do your best to shrink the socks for me and if you could do that immediately I’d be glad because then, if I need them, they’ll be ready for me. Will you also be sure to do the turn-ups on my No.1’s please? You will see I have enclosed an ounce of blue worsted. Will you stow it away where you can find it in case I have to have some socks darned while I’m home any time. I’m taking some to London with me, of course. One other thing, there are new vests in the long parcel. They look a funny colour now but I’ve seen some which have been washed properly and they come up beautifully white. The secret is to boil them in Persil on the first washing. Can you do that? And perhaps you’d also wash my pyjamas for me. Sorry this is such a “working” letter, love.
That’s about all, I think, except that I’m sending a small bag of fruit off today. Will you take the pram and collect it at Waterloo station? It should be there Friday.
Now I must be off, love. I hear that they are working in three watches at Whitehall! Not a very happy thought and it also means that my chances of writing are cut very considerably so I hope you’ll understand any gaps there may be.
Bye, love. Take care of yourself. I’m enclosing my personal ration card. Get some stuff with it before Saturday. All my love,
Ever,
Arthur X