Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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Letter written by Harry Massey from the No. 6 Palestine company at the Bluffs to Barbara Massey.

This is a scanned version of the original image in Special Collections and Archives at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.



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Capt J. H Massey 6th Palestinian Company The Buffs Middle East Forces

Letter. no. 25

17 Mar 41 Monday

Sweet darling - Your 22nd letter arrived today - & thus fills in the gap beautifully, & tells me all about your rooms at Ascot. The way these letters are coming at the moment is really wondrous, & I almost look forward to the post with confidence. It is very nearly like being away from you, but at home in England or Ireland. The only thing is the difference in time, but now in March, I somehow feel that the clock has been put back, & I am living with you in January. And now I must work even harder than before to keep up with your letters. I have only answered the last one with a letter card, & now another one is here. Last night I had a night out, which I will tell you abouot later on in this - & tonight I have had to be busy up to now, 11 o'clock. But I must make a start, before I go to bed. So I will be business like, & tell you all about the many question - & then go on about various things I have been going to ask you to do for me, but have always been too busy chattering to you, or telling you I love you, or how I think I did go into finances partly thoroughly before, & have added things from time to time - but things have altered a bit & may, I hope will, after more, & so I will give you all the figures as far as I know them. First of all, darling, what comes in. The allowances, as you surmise, are paid out here - that has to be, because they vary, & always have to be claimed for. With the exception of course, of the marriage allowance, 6/- a day which is paid in at home. I have Colonial allowance allowance, which

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2. is 3/6 a day, & that is regular. Field allowance, at 2/- a day depends on where you are, & if you have a bed & furniture provided. Here I do not have it - nor did I at the P.R.T.D which is a pity. All my pay, I arranged to have paid into Martins, at home. And that will have been going on all the time, at 13/- a day. My Captaincy did not appear in General Orders until last week, & then I have to do 3 weeks in the rank, then it is paid & the pay is ante dated - in my case, it will be to Feb 1st Captains pay is 16/6. And then there is the hpe of Majors pay, which is 28/6 - but I feel now they are going to make me do 3 months as a Captain, before they move again. And then, of course, the rank goes with this appointment - & I suppose I may easily be pushed off somewhere again, & then my rank & pay would drop to Captain again. So we must never live at a Major's rate of pay, but just save the extra money. So:- Association £325 per annum Lieutenant £237 ------------------------ £552 Marriage allowance £110 Colonial £64

Capt + 3/6 £64 or Lieut £ 626 Major + 12/- or Capt. £219 ------------------------ £845

And as you know, pay is taxable - & allowances are not. If I get up to a Majors pay, we shall be positively wealthy but, in any case, we are not too badly off, & should

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be able to manage quite nicely. Now, about my expenses. I appear to have spent £105 since Nove 16th - which is £5 - 10c a week. As I told you before, I spent quite a lot in Cairo on presents & clothes & books - & of course on myself too - & since then, I have bought a water tight, sand proof watch, for £5. The other one was useless & would not go at all in this climate. You said you wanted to know my outside limit, & so I will give you £5 pw. But - the allowances must come off that, for the purpose of you reckoning what I am taking out of Martins Bank - so that makes it £3-15-0 pw. So that you know how things stand, I have up to now drawn £110, which will be debited to Martins: & 4 x £5 which will be dedcuted from my pay, from time to time & when the chips from Paymaster, Middle East, reach the Paymaster in England. I should not need to draw any more money for about two months, as I have £27 in Barclays here, & March allowances to come. Each time I draw on Martins, or have an advance of pay, I will let you know at once, darling, - & then you can reckon up. But I feel pretty certain I shall spend less than £5 pw, as I have been doing for the last month or two. Probably more like £4. Everything in the town is so darned expensive, & I positively grudge paying the prices. I only go to an odd film, & most days have a coffee & a piece of gorgeous cake in some cafe. I haven't had a drink in the town for more than two weeks. I find my free

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4. time pretty well filled in, in writing to you, my sweet. And if & when I have any more free time. I must read - I have hardly read a word in the last two months. And then there is an odd invitation from time to time. And so the days pass, ina kind of a way. Don't, my darling, look upon Air Mail as an extravagance. Quite apart from the pleasure your letters give to me, they keep me up to the mark in writing to you - & when I am writing to you, I can only smoke a few cigarettes & drink a little beer - so writing is a great pleasure & a great economy. Tuesday Mar 18th That was as long as I could stay awake last night. I think that is everything about money, my darling. I hope you think I am being thrifty too? I certainly haven't spent less since I was 20. You are being marvellous sweetheart. But please do not be too skimpy with yourself - youmust have what you want as well as what you need. Now, my other bits of business. Will you please ask my mother to send out my blues - jacket, trousers, wellington boots, those funny collars, & the two white shirts. This place is lousy with regular army, & they all wear them - & so I might as well have mine. And I most certainly will not usethem again after the war. Besides, they are a change from khaki - drab. And will you ask Ahlquist to make another pair of trousers - same material as the jacket he made in Sept - but not cut straight across the back, as I had my present pair altered in Sept. And to be sure & put leather pieces at the bottoms of the trouser leg at the back. And exactly the same & by the time the new ones arrive, will be definitely shabby. It is impossible to obtain this material out here - they

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5. only seem to have whipcord. Your last two letters have been lovely, my darling, & I have loved them. I have just re-read them now, & it has taken me 1/2 an hour. The only thing was that the first was very happy & pleased with things - & the next, which I received first, started off very unhappy & miserable - but cheered up the next day, when the snow had gone & the sun had come, & you had another of my letters. I hate to think of you being so up & down, sweetheart - but I suppose it is inevitable, & I am very much the same myself. But I have been much more up the last few weeks, with letters from you & plenty of work to do. And I am delighted that you like your rooms at Eileen's - but I don't expect there is much point in me saying a great deal about them - as you will have departed, by the time you have this. But the great thing is that during the last few weeks of having the baby you will be in a pleasant place of more or less your own, & no people to get on your nerves. You told me that your love for me would never alter, & you asked me not to forget that. And you said - so long as you had confidence in me coming back to you, feeling the same twoards you & the baby. Dearest darling, it is lovely & wonderful of you to say that your love for me will never alter - & i never will foget. Lucky & blessed am I to be the one you say that to & I cannot think what I have done to deserve this, except to have loved you very much & very deply, & to still do that. You can have absolute confidence, my own darling, that your love will always be treasured & valued & returned. I have toldyouso much, & so often in my letters, haven't I? how I feel about you. And

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