My Dear Bessie (44 page)

Class ‘B' Releases – CC and Ts

55 Ellesmere Drive, Sanderstead, Surrey.

I have heard from a friend in the Post Office that the Min. of Labour has agreed that certain Counter Clerks with three months to serve shall be released from the Forces under Class ‘B'.

I am anxious that my husband's claim to such a release shall not be overlooked, and would be glad if you would note the following details in respect of him.

Army Rank, etc.:

Unit: ITALY.

Former District:

Date of Enlistment:

Date of Embarkation:

A/S Group No.: 14232134 SIGMN. BARKER H.C. 11 L.

of C. Signals (attached 15 BAPO CMF), Eastern.

His release would be most helpful at home, as I am expecting a baby in July. With thanks,

Yours truly,

B.I. Barker

9 April 1946

My Dearest,

We must put aside a little money for some ‘must-haves' in the household equipment line. Perhaps a couple of chairs, an odd table, glassware, curtains, lino, it might be anything like that but probably wouldn't be all of them. I suggest £20 as the amount to mentally set aside for that.

Then there's Janet – C. I haven't really much idea of the kind of expenses likely to be incurred under this heading. I imagine clothes will not call for much expense the first year (which is what we are thinking of), but that they'll about bankrupt us the next few. But I expect the cot to cost £5 and the pram to cost similarly, £5. Certainly not much more or less. And I think we must add £20 for a rubber sheet to the cot, for clothing, etc, making £30 in all. So,

Janet – C. £30

Clothes £35

Furniture etc. £20

Rates, bills, etc. £15

Making a total of £100

I had letters yesterday from Deb, Mum, Rosie, amongst others. Deb wonders if the atom bomb has caused the fine weather? Mum's – well, the same as ever. She actually said about Bert, ‘He got rid of me', which is just about the limit, I thought.

In an American mag I believe I sent you, I thought another limit had been reached: they were advertising electrically heated blankets, ‘just switch on a few minutes before bedtime'. A model announced for the spring was one which allowed the wife to heat her side a different temperature from the husband's! Blow me!

I love you.

Chris

21 April 1946

Darling, Most Wonderful, Dear and Beautiful One,

The Class B has come through and soon we will be together. I have spent many hours trying to think up a better opening than that, but how could I improve on such a beautiful, wonderful blurt? The first thing to tell you is: please stop writing. (Better sit down, if you are not already seated, and just think how grand it will be not to write, write, write for the rest of time.)

It being Easter, I shall be a little delayed in getting away, but I do feel there is quite a chance of me getting home in the week commencing May 5th. There is the usual Army uncertainty. It seems a long while to wait, but I shall be able to write you daily and tell you where I am.

I think I shall go by rail, stopping at Milan a few days. When I get to England I believe I have to go to Thirsk, and then to Guildford. It all takes time. Please do not alter your habits until you get a telegram from me (which I will send from Dover) telling you I am in England. Then it will only be a few days before we are together, before I am happy. Oh, I cannot write what I feel!

Please take it steady. The first point to clearly understand is that you have no need to stop going out until my telegram arrives. Then, well, you can stay in, but do go out for half an hour or so if necessary. This is where you demonstrate your good sense: for the second point is that I don't want you to sweat yourself out getting things ship-shape, putting up the curtains, and so on.

There will be tons and tons more of ‘what to do's coming from me before I finally come up the path.

Our plans have been subject to much alteration ever since we loved – and dared to have plans. This alteration is very wonderful, and I am grateful for it. We shall be together now for always, and these next months, which might have been so wretched apart, will be wonderful together. How can I stop my quaking when I consider that so soon I will be breathing the same air as you, that I will be smelling you, seeing you, hearing you, loving you. Darling, my dearest one, our long, long apartness is about to end. Thank you for the courage you have shown, the pluck with which you have borne your little fate. It will not be long before we are in each other's arms; before we are having a cup of cocoa and going to bed together. With what gladness and gratitude and pride of ownership will I watch you UNDRESS; with what delight and relief will I welcome you to the warming sheets, with what ecstasy will I take you to me.

Do try hard not to be too excited. But isn't it GORGEOUS that your vigil at home will last three months only, and that we have not only the home, but that we will be in it TOGETHER, and at this time. Soon, soon, soon, my lips will offer my love and gratitude to you, and my hands their allowance.

Dearest, Loveliest Woman, I am yours. I love you.

Chris

21 April 1946

Well, my Darling,

I hope you are by now taking well the really tremendous news that we are to be reunited, that soon you will not be getting any more letters, but be getting me instead. The idea that I really am coming home will take a little getting used to, but by the time I do arrive, you will have accomplished that mental leap forward, and be ready.

In a very true sense we shall be starting to live. It is really wonderful to allow one's thoughts to go to London Bridge station, to Sanderstead, to the bus; to you, and life with you. Please let me be your lover first and everything else second. And it is for always.

I would like to mention a few odd points, to keep in line with things prosaic: I have asked Doug to go ahead with the three mirrors. He insists on paying for the bathroom one. So the other two will cost us £3 4s. I shall be collecting them, isn't life grand?

Mum asks me if you would like a pastry board. She would be glad for you to have hers. We'll discuss this.

Tra la la.

I sent a box home today containing some odds and ends: I put on it ‘PERSONAL EFFECTS OF RELEASED SOLDIER'.

I love you.

Chris

22 April 1946

Dearest One,

I don't know how I shall react to civilian life; it is four years since I left it and it may shake me. I know you will help the process of getting used to it, by telling me what has to be done. Then, even before the Army took me in, I was deficient in many things. I have a lot to learn in all sorts of ways, and I hope you are going to see that I learn them. I can well understand that things I do at present, you would prefer that I didn't. Please do tell me what they are, as they arrive, or as I do them. I want to be the perfect husband, and I know jolly well I have precious few qualifications at present! It's up to you to do some grafting.

I should be able to immediately help, as maybe the stair cloth will come shortly, and I can help put it down. I suppose we will need stair rods, but they may not be obtainable.

I shall be able to do anything at all heavy so very easily. We should have very few worries, and money will not really be one of them, though it is a pity we haven't a few hundred pounds more. I hope your ‘bulge' will not impede our hugging.

Later. I don't and can't know at what hour I shall get home, please don't be at the station, or waiting at the bus stop, or anything like that. Sometimes after arriving in England chaps take a week to get home, others only two days. Just go about normally till you get my telegram, and after that, well, you can go out for a little shopping but not to Croydon, I suggest.

A better man than me would probably arrange to arrive in ‘civvies', but I shall arrive in the garb which seems most convenient. I will get the uniform off a few minutes after arrival, and put on my corduroys and whatever else is handy. I shall also probably have a bath, just to test OURS out!

Won't it be wonderful to sit at the same table and watch the other eating?

I LOVE YOU.

Chris

23 April 1946

DEAREST,

Thank you for the SOON-TO-BE-SEEN room layout. The answer to your query ‘Are you living in it?' is – I SOON WILL BE! The reply to your suggestion that we go to bed upon my return is: ‘LET'S!' But, really, it will be so much better than before. In October, I had you warm and grateful in my arms for such a little while, and then we had to go and sit with your Dad in the sitting room.

Pouffes – I've got an idea – if they let me keep my kitbag, couldn't you make a pouffe out of it. Colour it, and pad it?

How are you getting on without writing to me? You will save a good few hours between now and my return – spend it knitting, my darling. And don't crochet a whacking big ‘WELCOME HOME' sign, there's a good girl. I know I'm welcome!

I WANT YOU. I LOVE YOU.

Chris