No. 9

The Guard Tent S.I.F.

Sunday 19.10.39 11:30 pm.

My Darling,

As you will notice from the above I am “en garde”.

I have received two letters since I wrote to you last, yours of the 9th and 13th. They both arrived yesterday, the former having been held up because the sorters at the base had a couple of days off during which time we were without mail at all.

Thank you my dear so much for the Balaclava Helmet, it’s considered to be a great success. I’m not sure wether I look more like a crusader or something of Walt Disney’s, anyway it’s very lucky.

I like the colors too darling. It’s quite alright in fact it’s an advantage if one’s things are not blacks, they are much more difficult to pinch. If you have time I would very much like another. Could it be scarlet do you think?…

…It would look, as well as be, cozy and it is really a very good idea to have two in case one gets wet.

I have not yet written to thank Edie for her parcel but I will try and write to her whilst on this guard. We get very little time for correspondence when we are manning, in fact I am rather behind with mine at the moment.

I have had, since I wrote you last, a letter from mother and Dad and I have not yet answered Jack and Joan’s epistle. I hope to clear off all my arrears by writing hard during the small hours. I have been very lucky with mail lately, it’s lovely to get letters and I have had a nice lot from you darling which matters most.

I adore the things you say about leave. I lay awake and think about it sometimes, but thoughts are dangerous things, one can very easily pick out the men who find it impossible to live in the present. I’m afraid they are not very happy.

I try to think about the things that happen…

…how you would be amused at them, and maybe rather touched at that, and so you seem to be always with me–just by imagining your reaction to the things that appeal to me or make me laugh.

Earlier this evening we were in the dugout of one of the guns and not in the guard tent, principally because there was a fire there, when a worm wriggles out of the wall into the light of our hurricane lamp. He seemed very surprised and instead of wriggling back commenced to try and climb the clay wall, almost perpendicular.

He managed about 5 feet before he fell. I thought it was such a fine effort that I caught him and put him on the top of where he seemed to want to go. Would you believe it, he started climbing down again and of course again fell most of the way. Most unreliable animals French worms. Still his first effort was almost British.

I am afraid I got my leg pulled rather badly by the rest of the guard for assisting…

…worms in acrobatic achievements. I thought however somehow darling you would understand.

I am grieved to say that I have lost Vic again. He went down to see a new MO, the one attached to the town we are now in, the day before yesterday and he apparently told him that beside the rheumatism in his head he also has a weak heart, and promptly sent him off to a base hospital. He said that Vic should never have come out here which, as you know, is what I have thought all along.

It seems possible that he will get his discharge from the army, in fact he may be home before this letter reaches you. If however this is not the case I should feel inclined to tell Tris whichever part of the above you think she ought to know. I wouldn’t however harp upon the chances of her seeing him again soon, as one never knows with the army and it would be a shame to raise false hopes.

It was lovely for you to have a day in town darling. I do hope you enjoyed it and I am sure Ellis did. I am very glad you had someone to take you to lunch, perhaps it made up a little for not having any money to spend on something for yourself and Jill.

How are you finding food prices etc? Mr Fermer wrote saying that everything was much more expensive. I think the suggestion that butter should be rationed to 1/4 lb per week per person is absolutely ludicrous considering that we are supposed to be almost free from U-boat menace. Do you have much difficulty in getting any sorts of food? It was very sweet of Wyn to arrange about ‘les pomme de terre” but also very like her.

It will be grand if Pam comes to Maycot for Christmas, it will be something for Jill to look forward to.

It made me laugh a lot to hear about your poetry evening, I can just imagine you with your “Take her up…

…tenderly, lift with care, fashioned so slender, young and so fair”. Incidentally, Pat has got a little slim book of modern poetry which I read quite a bit in the summer and which I think you would be interested in, some about the Great War.

I can’t imagine what can have happened to the “Little Woodsman” although I don’t think the loss is serious, perhaps Spencer Lewis borrowed it!!

Have you heard from Spencer Lewis yet? I have had a reply from BBC in which they say the matter may be dealt with by installments in view of the circumstances, they don’t suggest any amount. I intend writing to them again.

We had rather an amusing experience the other evening. We got talking to an old boy in the Cafe and it transpired that he was the Post Master. I asked him if it were possible to telephone to England, his reply being that one could, but only during the day,…

…which of course for us is impossible being on the Gun Position from dawn to dusk. We next asked him how much, and he said “not much, I am the Post Master”, a case of “dans le poche” I am afraid.

Well darling it is now 1:15 a.m. and if I am going to write some more letters I must say night, night. I will bring you a cup of tea one morning soon I hope.

Yours V.V.A.

Kenneth.