Mrs Kenneth Penman
MAYCOT
12 COMMONSIDE
KESTON
KENT

No 7.

Gnr Penman 1440260
Sec 4 194/60 HAA.
B.E.F.

May 2 1940.

Darling One.

Thank you so much for yours No 6 and 7 dated 23rd and 26th respectively. I was so glad that you liked the cowslip and that Jill did too, you are a sweet billy, I’d much rather be able to bring you flowers, red roses, not cowslips, you know. I didnt know what to put in Jill’s letter when I had finished yours and the cowslip was a sudden inspiration. I was very touched to find the violet and primroses, they reminded very poignantly of our last afternoon together. Would you really like a cowslip? I’m going to pack up for a moment and see if I can find one in the woods at the back of us, dont go away — Madame was out in the woods cutting greenery for the rabbits, she was rather intrigued, I think, when she saw me pick just one flower. After my explaining she said she thought it was “beautiful sentimentality”, remember please I picked this one and I sent it you darling with every bit of my love.

I adored the picture conjured up of Jill planting…

…her beans immediately on receipt.

About the B’s and terms and the query you raise, if they did have the impertinence to give us notice to quit next November, I should have to write to them saying that I was not prepared to leave, the next move (theirs) would be to ask the consent of the magistrates for possession, I should then write a letter saying I was serving abroad and that I didn’t wish to vacate the premises, and (I am assured) no magistrate would give his assent to their plea. I am told there is no special litigation to cover the position, but the tennant if he is serving with His Majesty’s forces may expect as much consideration as we have already received from the Council already.

I have made a bet with myself darling that I shall be home for your birthday, there is a new BEF order that any mention of leave in letters is definitely taboo hence forward; so I must leave it just at that, we have been told that we may(still) let you know the date we expect to arrive but that we must point out that it is secret and is for the ears of ones wife, father or mother only, and that if it came to the notice of the War Office that the date…

…had been divulged, leave would automatically be stopped for the soldier concerned.

I was so glad to hear about the proficiency pay coming through, when I heard that Jacko’s Joan had received hers I knew you would have it about the same time. I think the smallness of the gas bill is a grand show, I do hope that this tiny bit extra will help to offset the increase in the price of cigarettes under the new budget, I dont like to think of you completely without them as I know how necessary they are.

It was very sweet of Wyn to give you the Hungarian blouse, it sounds delightful, tell her I think she’s a darling. I’m going to save up and try and bring you each home something, a la mode, perhaps Wyn could drop me a wee note letting me know her bust measurement.

I dont think you need fear our going to Norway, actually Jim stands a much more probable chance of going than I do, I know of one unit that has spent the winter in ack ack stations at home that has already left.

We all liked your cat and mouse? on Jill’s letter to me, I couldnt kid the other…

…four that Jill had done it herself, he was a very round comfortable looking fellow.

Nothing very much of note has occurred during the last few days, except that I’ve made myself a hammock out of sand bags, I used “signals” telephone cable for the rope, as I am sorry to say that there are people about like Mac and Ted who think that operations with a knife whilst I’m asleep are very funny, I’ve had to be very firm with them, threatening them both with blood-curdling consequences.

We have had a plague of may bugs during the last few days, you know the fellows rather like large flying beetles, in the evenings its rather the locusts in the “Good Earth”. Yesterday I discovered that a French ploughman had collected about fifty of them in a tin with holes bored in the top, I was very curious to know what he wanted them for. Knowing their habits with snails I thought perhaps he was going to eat them, but no, he explained that they were for his picanninies and that they tied a length of cotton round their tummies and let them fly off, hauling them in again when…

…they had reached the limit of the thread, he assured me that the may bug didnt mind and sometimes they had races!

I cant remember whether I’ve told you this before but Tony is rather niggly when he talks about his fiancée, he generally gets a letter twice a week but for five days now he hasn’t heard from her, so she is in disgrace and her photograph on the mantelpiece is turned round face to the wall. Also when he receives a letter if it contains anything which he considers impertinent, she again has to face the wall, but only for about half an hour; this time is quite the longest she has been in disgrace and we were getting a bit fed up with having just a blank piece of wood showing us. Last night Ted drawing-pinned one of Domegues studies out of “Men Only” over it. Tony was completely scandalized when he saw it, tearing it up into little pieces and jumping on them.

Well darling I want this to catch this evening’s mail, all my love to Kenneth’s brave and beautiful little girl, be sure she always remembers that he loves her all the…

…time with an aching heart. every bit of my love again my gallant lady soldier.

yours
Kenneth
(x a special French one).