Mrs. Kenneth Penman
Maycot
12 Commonside
Keston
Kent

Postmark: Birmingham, 8 PM, 31 AUG 1940

Shopping list (handwritten):
– Hair slides
– Shampoo (Liquid soap)
– Hankies
– Crayon book + crayons
– Red lipstick
– White shoe cleaner
– Wool (10 oz navy)
– 5 oz brown
– 3 oz Turquoise

34 Bde School, Fernbank House,
Alum Rock Rd, Birmingham 8.

Aug 30th 1940.

Darling,

I received your letter this evening upon returning from the baths. I was so sorry to hear you had not received mine until yesterday. Yours, you note, did the return journey in under 24 hours; I think this is because when I posted mine, the Brigade box wasn’t cleared until the next morning, allied to the fact that except for armaments, the Brum people stop everything as soon as the siren sounds. Buses and trams stop outside the public shelters, and the drivers and conductors pop down for 6 to 7 hours.

Last night I went into town and had to walk all the way back late. I went into a pub about seven and gradually collected quite a cosmopolitan number of drinking companions. Besides the bloke I had originally gone out with, we had a foolish naval officer, an…

…Aussie called Bung-ho, and a Warwick regiment 2nd Lieutenant in the party. The latter was rather tight; he informed us that he had removed his pips because when he did that, he could get as tight as he liked. I think he thought it was some form of disguise.

We had an exam this morning, and I feel I did adequately. A man I know who was on a previous course told me that it isn’t policy to do too well in the first exam. The lectures are given by a Sergeant Baker, and the theory seems to be that if you get 15% the first week and then 60% the next, he pats himself on the back to such an extent that you are quite likely to become his fair-haired boy—his prize pupil, I mean.

I have been thinking that since this subject is so closely linked with television, I might write to Marmaduke (Lanzo?) and ask him if he’d lend me a…

…textbook (they cost about £3–3– to buy). Do you think Edie might know his address?

Jerry still fails to hit anything of any importance here. Our Market Hall has been burnt out, and an area about the size of an acre was roped off for two days in the very center of Birmingham. Apart from this, however, he has been thoroughly unsuccessful.

I will certainly try and write to Mwoowla, although I spend most of my evenings these days revising. I do hope you and Pop are well.

Have you had any trouble with water, gas, or telephones? We have been without all three intermittently; it has never been more than 12 hours, however, before they have managed to get the service working again.

I think you are probably right, Darling, about my not trying to get home at weekends. I might get stuck at St. Albans or somewhere and be…

…disappointed after all. I long to see your sweet heart with all my heart (Damn the sirens! That means I shan’t find a paper boy to post this for me).

I’m looking forward frantically for my seven days. We’ll have a really lovely time around Aberystwyth, only even better, perhaps.

Well darling, shelterwards I rush. Quelle vie, ours isn’t lighted, so I must finish.

Yours, with all my heart,
Kenneth