Dick’s 1945 diary for March:
20th Fri – Wrote Brinner & Cho. Letters from mother, Cho & Bryn.
52nd (L) Div Recce Rgt
RAC
BLA.
Tuesday March 20th
Chotie Darling,
Have just received your letter per Bryn along with others from mother, etc.
I can see my name in ‘News of the World” headlines, ‘writing to his AWOL wife’ – what a shocker you are! Really I can’t think why I have anything to do with you…. I expect you’re back with the fold again now, which probably isn’t too pleasant.
I’ve settled down again, after nearly getting’ ‘done-in’ by a shell which killed the other bloke I was with. Awful business. However I’m way out of it now with a cushy old job which I hope will last some weeks anyhow.
I’m living in a cottage – at least 300 years old (having evicted the ‘civvies’), which is really quite pleasant as the weather has been excellent for the past few days. I’ve spent the past 48 hours painting signs (of all things for an officer (?) to indulge in!). Imagine me in shirt-sleeve order, smoking the old pipe and humming airs from “Rigoletto*”!
I’ve just written Bryn, just to prove to him I am still alive, and give him what dope – I can – not much! He seems much happier with the Berks** than at RAU’s*** which I suppose is understandable.
The countryside around here is really lovely in the pastoral sense (nothing majestic about it) - very much like Kent. Some very charming farms, and a very well-fed populace. Children (girls and boys) wear long black stockings and the little girls have the inevitable plaits – and big blue eyes.
The ceilings are so low in this place that even I have developed round-shoulders and a permanent stoop. My bedroom is about 10ft by 6, and the bed completely fills it.
I’ve had about fifty eggs since I came back – all presented by the locals – and pork galore. I’ll soon be thinking about my figure….You’d love it here.
I’ve been on to the Orderly Room ref. the allowance but of course they haven’t any of the pukka forms left so I’ll just have to wait until they turn up. In any case we’ll get the “back-pay”.
(Break for Supper….)
Well, darling, I’ve had some eggs and chips, and it’s pretty late so I’m off to bed.
Goodnight, my Darling
Dicker
P.S. Have you cashed other cheques yet? I enclose Rita’s. Where do you want allowance paid to?!?
*Giuseppe Verdi’s Italian opera concerning the licentious Duke of Mantua, his jester Rigoletto and Rigoletto’s daughter Gilda.
**Presumably the Royal Berkshire Regiment.
*** Regional Administrative Unit?
© Chotie Darling
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