A letter home…Walter’s War

My contributions now all removed for personal reasons. Sorry.

 

Absolutely fantastic Martin.

The world's a better place today having read what you have posted here. Thank you so much for sharing this; it is so very much appreciated.

Kind regards, keep 'em coming, always,

Jim.



Aberdeenshire Council Historic Environment Record - Aberdeenshire - NJ81NE0074 - FINTRAY HOUSE

 

Cracking stuff Martin. Some domesticity after the storm, and before the storm!

The things those gals did to keep their chaps happy, and the things those chaps did to keep their gals happy











"Wear a tight one, look a right one, balacla.................". You know the drill.

Kind regards, knit one purl one, always,

Jim.

P.S. The Christmas "stocking" of childhood (a knitted sock). Seeing a rounded shape within the bottom of same; An orange! Luxury! Arm straight in down to the toes to draw out the rounded shape of................ the matching sock to the "Christmas stocking".
My Irish gran always had a wicked sense of humour

 

Looking up the hill in more recent times Martin (courtesey of wiki).

Kind regards, still raining there, always,

Jim.

 

Martin
His remark about "the stamps are the same kind". Maybe she asked if the postage stamps in Scotland were the same type as ones in England??!!

Lesley

 

"In the army men live conscious all the time that their hearts, roots, origins lie elsewhere in some other life. They live as a planet lives revolving around its parent sun. They measure the hardships, privations, weariness here against the memory of a past that they hope to continue in the future. They may romantacize that past to counterbalance the present, but however far their fancies lead them they know there is a core of reality.
All the while they live here an imposed life they know there is the other life still going on in which their absence is a dominant factor. The strength of this knowledge gives their present existances a limited and definite shape. Although it may contain the whole emotional range of their other lives they live the present with only a part of themselves. Since their hearts reside elsewhere they face the present with an armoured countenance. They are able to adopt the role that circumstances require without involving the whole of themselves and without destroying the intactness of their true lives. It is the diminished version of themselves that they form all contacts, friendships, love affairs."

For those that had known another life before the army, for those that hoped to one day return to said life. The soldier's lot, away from home.

Martin; reading that passage nowadays makes me immediately think of Wally's letters.

Thanks for posting them up.

Kind regards, always,

Jim.

 

I think your pondering is correct .

Thinking about that comment in the letter about postage, I remember a story from a long time ago about an old lady from Scotland who was a little confused by the currency change to decimalisation. She asked if she'd still be using pounds, shilling and pence in Scotland!
Sounds daft now but I remember the change (I'm old now) and trying to get to grips with the different coins.
Miss those 'thruppenny bits and tanners"

 

Florins. The two-shilling bit. With one of them in my mit king for the day. Though of course invariably skint by 3pm

Kind regards, farthing with a robin on, always,

Jim.

 

Really enjoying reading these latest letters, very interesting details of the times they went through in WW2 .

You could certainly buy loads of sweets for half a crown. We had the "penny tray" to display Black Jacks etc. in our local shop.
I always felt rich with a 10 bob note, too.

 

The date looks like 20th May to me, but not certain. As you say it isn't clear at all. There are letters before the date, too, which I can't read.

 

How true , as that letter is July 1941 he will be referring to the invasion of the USSR.

 

"We got back to camp about 12o.c. midnight and then I had to do some blancoeing and polishing right away as we had a big inspection on the Sunday so got to bed about 12.30, but it was worth it to get away from this dump for a few hours."

Would the blancoeing he refers to be this? I assume servicemen would use it to clean shoes, etc.

British WW2 Liquid Blanco For Canvas - Soldier of Fortune

 

Seems there was a block version and a long history of use by the military for the Blanco product, and it does mention webbing.

Potted history of web cleaning | Blanco and Bull

 

Crikey that paragraph.
Hopes and dreams and the reality that time waits for no man.

Yes dear as you say the children do spring up, but as for looking forward to the time when they are thinking of getting married, don’t forget love that we shall be a lot older as well, and I can’t say that I can look forward to that part of it much. You see dear, you have got to look at these little points, at the same time it’s all in a lifetime.

 

"Simplification of Army Pay" - page found in Phillimore's History of PoWs - rather later on in the war. Very complicated !

 

A few months later:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205198301

About 45 photographs of the Sperrin mountains during the war at IWM:

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=Sperrin&pageSize=&media-records=records-with-media

 

Regarding the missing address , maybe a friend or neighbour wanted to write to him & your Nan tore it off to save her writing it out.

 

Re pay
HOME GUARD PAY?

 

R Whites Lewisham possibly
R. White's - Wikipedia


R. White’s Mineral Water | Bridge to Nowhere


Deptford
W.A.Wilson 22 Eastney Street, Mineral Water Manufacturers.
Greenwich Industrial History: Engineering firms in the Borough

 

Excellent as ever Martin. Superb stuff!

I have a lot of catching up to do

Kind regards, thank you so much for posting, always,

Jim.