July 24, 1944
HMS Wasp
? GPO
London
My Dear Georgia,
I imagine I am less than dust in your eyes now, my very sincere apologies for not writing before, but its very hard to keep to any kind of schedule in the service. I promise myself I will write to Canada once a month, that is you and Ray Hallington, but somehow I ??? find inspiration and questions combine, always crowds of people, tonight there isn’t anyone in the cabin except me. Recently we moved into this room, previously we had a small dark and one window which immediately looked onto a dreadful wall, one week we decided to paint and dust (?) it, wall paper is one of “those” thing in England now, you can imagine the chaos, we had nowhere to move everything into, the whole operation was carried out complete with beds and belongings of eight people, our cupboards consist of the hanging curtain idea, well it was finished, done in our own time, and the day when everything was clean and bright, and we were standing back admiring our handwork, and P/O came in and offered us this lonely big room with two huge windows overlooking the channel, one snag, it also had to be painted and distempered, but the view of the sea, the ships and outside activity was too much for us. We took it and it was certainly worth it, we see all the doodle bugs, convoys just everything and the freshness has to be lived in to be believed,
Tonight the sea is calm, I don’t like it this way, it strikes me as very sinister, when I see the white horses dashing up the beach, it’s very human, but this calm unrippling surface is grey and ugly.
Today I had a letter from Ray, the first in five weeks. He is very well wrote at great length on his visit to Rome Which he enjoyed immensely, St Peters and all the other great works in Rome, left a great impression.
Mail is not very good going to and coming from Italy, but I think he does better than I, may be how it should be.
My mother and father had a dreadful disappointment recently my brother had written home saying he would be home this month, they were wild with joy, we all were, then another letter was received saying it was all squashed. He is terribly bitter and over his disappointment and so are my parents, I haven’t been home for over four months and that seems ages, poor Jim must feel dreadful, but reading the paper, I find the limit for overseas services is five years, his five are up in November, so in any case it won’t be too long, He and I were hoping to be home for the 22nd of the month. My sister Joan was twenty one, and looking forward to having her big brother and sister there to celebrate with her, she was sadly disappointed.
It will soon be harvest time and then I suppose You will be busier than ever, summer for us has not been very good, in fact barely noticeable. After D. Day it was particularly dreadful, but the boys got through regardless. It was a wonderful landing, don’t you agree, and I was proud when I read that the Canadians were there with the British Isles boys. I wonder if the Canadian people at home realize how glad those boys would be to get over there. I have talked to many of them before and after, and even those with a long spell in England behind them, where still rarin’ to go and those I met after the landing, where positively aggrieved that they were not in it.
One of my favourite haunts, is the Y.W.C.A, run by a Mrs. Meadley and her friends, some of the kindest people I have met in my service life, in Ontario near Ottawa there is a town, I can’t remember the name, which sends gifts to us, and write letters to the Y.W. We are waiting now for a huge consignment of ‘ life savers’ which they have sent to us, most of us have had them before and are quite looking forward to our present, next time I write I will give you the name of the place and mobile canteen, which we call the ‘tea boat’ and calls rounds the Dockyard was also a gift from Canada. Very much appreciated.
I hope Johnny and the children are well, do you think you could spare me another snap of them, I’d love one as they are new.
I shall not take such an age writing next time, please forgive me,
Lots of love,
Yours Muriel X