Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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thrilling to hear you say that you would love me twice as much when I come home. And you said I must do the same! Darling one, can you doubt it? And you have spoken of a second honeymoon. Oh sweetheart. I often allow my mind to dwell on this, - I am doing now - and the exhilaration and joy and happiness is almost more than I can bear to think of. I can't imagine myself ever stopping talking to you, listening to you, & kissing you, and eating you & loving you. When once you are in my arms again, & I am in yours - I shall not be able to let go. It will be glorious Heaven. Its too much to think of, darling - I'm sitting here now, shaking my head, & groaning aloud, talking to myself, and to your pictures. When, when, when, will it be?

I have just had supper in my bedroom - brought down for me by [Chainatzki] from the Mess. This is a new departure, which I shall certainly continue. I finish my evening's work - undress & have a hot bath - & then change into flannel trousers, civilian shirt etc. And here your pair of new grey socks came in so useful It was clever of you darling - not to knit khaki. The grey ones are exactly wat I needed - & your interpretation of tropical khaki, as a pastel shade of orange - or janquil - was brilliant - and admirably suited to my slightly shi-shi taste in clothes. I love myself in them. I have got the ingredients for a gin and French down here - & so I have

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one of these, & read the morning paper, after my supper, and here I am. And no time wasted, changing into drill, and going up to Mess, & being bored, & wasting time. I'm afraid it's not too sociable, but I can now please myself, & I shall certainly do it 2-3 times a week.

You asked me in one letter about the language question, & I told you something about it. A priceless case of getting all mixed up happened today. I visited one of the guards where The Guard Commander, a Lance Corporal, is a bit shaky on his English. One of the men was very ignorant & idle, & I had to shout at him. After dismissing the guard, I was asking the L/Cpl how the new feeding arrangements which I had made were going on - & he told me. I then switched off, & asked him the name of the idle man. And he replied - "Apricot, Sir". I looked a bit surprised, & said I could remember no man of that name in the Coy. The L/Cpl was covered in confusion, & said he thought I had asked what sort of jam they had had for breakfast! That's the sort of thing that happenes but not often quite as funny as that.

I think I told you that I had recommended Jim Headley for 2nd in command, & that this was a bit awkward as he is the junior by a long way - that the senior subaltern, Tony Burnett, though young, is a Regular & has been throug Sandhurst, this was in February - though the recommendations did not become applicable until March 3rd when Behrens departed. I found out the other day that this was going through, but

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like my promotion, was being very slow. The last few weeks however, probably as a result of my chasing, Tony has got out of his Regular ways, & has been very good. Jim on the other hand, has been getting on my nerves. He is a bit Bass & Birmingham to begin with, & also he is too kind & gentle & shy - to the point of being gutless & easy going. So I had a talk with him the other evening, about his coming duties & responsibilities & he made many very unsatisfactory statements & replies to my questions. He made some frightfully trite & suspicious remarks, about not being ambitious, & every man knowing his own limits, & it depends how you are made - & "you cannot change your nature", & so on. So I did a great deal of inward groaning, & have thought very hard since. And today I woke up, & reversed my decision, and I hope it will not be too late. It is not very good to chop & change one's opinions, in full view of the higher command - but I think it is better than allowing a mistake to go forwad. At least Tony has guts - and he will probably come along well - under my skilful guidance! I hope they will hurry it a bit now. You will notice above, that I have crossed out banal, & substituted trite. Well - the other day I bought H. W. Fowler's Modern English Usage. Do you know it? It is a wonderful dictionary

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& guide to the English language. I find it most useful, instinctive, interesting & amusing. It was recommended to me by Frank Macharkie. I looked up, banal, & found "Banal, banality. These are library critics' words, imported from France by a class of writers whose jaded taste relishes novel or imposing jargon. In French they have had a continuous history and a natural development from their original to their present sense; in English they have not & we accordingly remain conscious that they are exotics. With common, commonplace, trite, trivial, mean, vulgar, truism, platitude & other English words to choose among, we certainly do not need them." So I chose, trite. It is a delightful book to have. It cost 12/- & I have put 5 Feb 41 on the fly leaf - & so Tom gave it to me for my birthday darling. Which reminds me my dear love that I never really gave you or sent you anything for your birthday. When I sent you the various things in November, I had no very clear idea when they would arrive. And my idea then, of a birthday present, was the string of Memory beads, on which I have paid a deposit of £1. I expect your reply about these is in one of your missing letters. But things like these are so very much a matter of taste, that I did not 'want to' buy them until I heard from you what you thought.

I have written Peter a long and very nice letter about the commission today. And so with mine, & your letter too, I hope that there will now be no chance

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at all of my interference with my 1/2 salary. As for next year's commission - I hope I shall be there to earn it myself.

I found out some information about these increased allowances today, & I'm afraid it is not as good as I hoped it would be. Your allowance as a Major's wife - how does that sound? - is 7/6 not 9/6, but it does not become operative until I become a temporary Major, which is not until I have been acting for 6 months. So that is that. And the only increased allowance to me, is field allowance, from 2/- to 3/6- & I am not eligible for that just now, it does not help much. But I must not be too greedy. The one thing which makes me so, is for you to have all you want & need now - & for us to have a really good start for our new house when the war is finished.

I have some v. pretty flowers in my room today. One is a dear little red one - I don't know what it is called, but I sent you a sprig of it.

I shall go to bed now, sweetest, and think about you & try to imagine you are with me, that we are kissing very passionately, & very beautifully. You are adorable & thrilling to kiss, my darling. Please always want me to kiss you in the way we always have done. Oh darling, we have had such lovely, memorable times. I could never forget, from when I first knew you. All my everlasting love, Harry xxxxxxxx.