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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Letter No 42. Wednesday Major J.H.Massey 14 May 41 6 Palestinian Coy. The Buffs Middle East Forces

My own dearast sweet darling, Your 34th letter arrived today and distressed me terribly you were feeling so hopeless and tragic and worried about everytihng. Thank goodness I had already had your no. 35 by which time you had cheered up again considerably and how at least and at last become reassured about money and knew you did not have to worry any more about it, or the overdraft, or how to pay the doctor and the nursing home and you had fixed up with the nursing home, and also I had had your p.c. of April 12th about having founds a house in S. Devon. I musts not begin to run on again about that tragic misunderstanding - but I do feel so strongly now that a very large part of your misery and unhappiness ha been directly caused by that. How to pay the docot - and hor to pay the nursing home - and how to afford a house, and things for the baby. And what if the B.C. and D pay stopped. And the disappointment of the situation after you had been so careful. And the thought that I ws not caring a damn - and what was I doing with the money, anyway. And how we should be fixed after the war. Oh darling - I am longing to have your letters, apologising for misjudging me. You must understand, my darling, that if ever the situation were to become difficult, and the Assn were to stop my 1/2 pay - which I do not think they will do - I should cut down everything, and live on the bare minimum. My only thought is for you to have enought and for us to be able to have a good beginning after the war - so that the return to Yorkshire will not be too hoorifying for you. But the thing

Last edit over 2 years ago by tt
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2. has happened now, and cannot be undone. But I am sure you would have been happier and more contented if you had not been so worried about this. And then my letters seem to have struck a bad parch at the very worst possible moment - and I suppose you may have thought again that I was so busy spending money, I had ;no time to write to you. Poor, sweet, darling - I had a forboding about misunderstanding. I pray there will be no more. It hurts me terribly that you have had such a rotten, dull, worrying time during the pregnancy, and that you have been so nervous about the result of the baby, and the birth. I am pining for news - it musts come any day now. I am convinced that all is going to be well - there is no good reason why is should not be. Lisa was perfect and her death was a tragic accident. And the tragedy of the boy was purely bad doctoring - and nothing will ever convince me that he was not a perfectly normal child. Oh sweetheart, I hope that before my next letter, or even before I have finished this one, I shall have had the good news from you, and the all your sufferings of the last few months can be put behind you- and we can then enjoy the present, and look forward to he future and what we are going to do and where and how. And if only you had found a pleasant place to stay, and had, consistently pleasant people to be with. Instead of that, it has been just the opposite, and most of the folks have been a positive menace to your peace of mind. I wish you could have been with Vera and Martin all the time. Vera is so

Last edit over 2 years ago by tt
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3. kind and amusing - and Martin admires you so much. Do you remember the first weekend we spent with them? You had on a black silk evening dress, and sat on the sofa, in the dark, and in front of the fire - and it was the first time I felt the softness of your sweet, adorable legs. Oh my beloved sweetheart, what thrills and lovely times we have had. I think so often and so much of all the times and all the places where we have made love, and I rack my brains to remember all the details. I am so sure of this that there is no man in all the world who has so much lovely happiness to remember - and so much more to look forward to, when all this ghastly business is over. It was marvellous to hear you say, in one letter, how you would dog my footsteps when I come home and would never leave me. I said exactly the same things to you in one of my letters - and I do think it is lovely, how, so often, it is obvious that we are thinking so much alike, and proving it to each other by our letters, from so many miles away. But, if you can put up with me, I plan that we should be inseparable once we are together again. We shall be able to get so tremendously much out of life together. I hope we shall have some pleasant and interesting people to know - but I feel now that if we can only have each other, and the baby, and maybe another baby - everything and everybody else is very incidental and unimportant.

Last edit over 2 years ago by Juju2021
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4. It seems pretty certain that we shall have a few hundred pounds when this war is over - and it will be so wonderul to be able to find a house we both really like, and make it as we want it, and most certainly have a relly fine studio for you: a big one, with a good floor, and plenty of light, and big windows to throw open in the summer and heat for the winter. And And what shall I do in my spare time? Well darling. I thinnk I will be a perfect husband, lover, and companion, father, or try very hard to be: and after that, I shall garden. Yes Really! - and fish and read, and maybe play tennis Those last four being all things which you can do, and take an interest in. Gardening, you will very much approve of of course. Tennis is a good game, and is good for both of us. And fishing is an interesting meditative sport, and takes one, usually into nice country. Golf is given up, of course, because you have tried, and just do not enjoy it: an occasional game perhaps, but I certainly shall not join a club. And then, I thought, I might become an expert at casting - even in bronze. Another hard day - and bow all those happy thoughts are [calming?] me to sleep - so I will go on tomorrow. Goodnight, my lovely sweetheart. I shall kiss you and hold on to you, when I am in bed. xxxxx Harry Thursday 15 May. I had a pc. dated April 23rd from

Last edit over 1 year ago by jaxdnaquest
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5. you today, and it has made me very happy, because it was a cheerful one - you had Peggy staying with you - and it means that you are safe and sound and well, and reasonably happy, up to three weeks ago. And the cottage in S.Devon is apparently all fixed up - I am looking foreard to hearing more about this. I like to see your p.cs addressed to "Major"! Though I almost feel that Major J.H. Massey looks more dignified than Major Harry Massey - perhaps not. In any case, the No. 64582 is not necessary - that was all part of that wretched address which I gave you when I left England, and which I shall never foret as long as I live. There are still 12 of those first letters of yours missing; perhaps they will arrive someday. I am writing this just before lunch, and I hope to be able to do some more this afternoon. The Palestine Orchestra is here again, and so of course I am going this evening - this time with [Ben-Aizi?] & Moscovitz; the British subalterns are too jazz bound. Your p.c. also said you had had no letter from me for 6 weeks. It really is mortally disappointing, for me as well as for you - when I think of all the letters I have sent and the time I have spent in writing them, and have thought myself such a model, and how pleased you would be and perhaps even a little surprised to get so many letters from me. Normally, there is nothing I like to do better, than to go to my room, and relax, and take a couple of bottles of beer, [and later?] - I just write to you and think of you and Lisa and look at your photograph. But sometimes, it is rather an effort, when I am feeling tired and unappy and sad, and homesick for you, but often I have pushed myself on to write, or

Last edit 3 months ago by MaryV
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