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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I suppose - but I cannot see any definite goal to aim for, such as I had for the command of the Coy. It is annoying really; because I feel complete confidence in myself - I would like to be a Lieut Col - get a bigger job & see what I can make of it, & perhaps get into a position to influence my own future. But I'm afraid this job is very much of a cul-de-sac - & about the only real chance of a move is for me to agitate to go to the 1st Bn in which case I would go as a Capt. - & lead a Coy into battle - which you would not like at all - although I feel tempted at times. I always remember my promise to you & also my own paramount & overwhelming desire to come back to you safe & sound.

Friday Aug 22nd I stopped rather abruptly last night to change into long trousers & go to the Garrison cinema & see Fred Astaire & Eleanor Powell in Broadway Melody of 1940. They really do dance superbly & it is such pleasure to watch them. I believe it is the first time I have seen her, & though her face is not too beautiful, one does not need to look at it muchher legs are so shapely & she dances so well - far better than Ginger Rogers.

On Wednesday we had rather a boozy party. I think I told you about calling on some chaps of the Motor Torpedo Boats & how they had signed up

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up pretty well. They are in again, so we invited them along & also a dear old thing of an R.A.F. Adjutant with snow white hair , who I know rather well. We drank steadily away from 7.0 to 10.30 & then they all agitated to go out. I was determined not to go but my subs rather kindly really insisted so we went to different cabaret places. But these places are hopeless & useless & nearly screamed with boredom. And such a shocking waste of the 17/6 I spent on one round of rather inferior wisky party drinks. These places have very poor bands, a pathetic floor show, a lot of silly looking badly behaved officers, & a number of rather plain, dirty & smelly looking girls in evening dresses, who are merely prostitutes & who I am told charge most ridiculous prices for their disgusting bodies. The last time I visited one of these joints was about four months ago - the next time will be at least another four months, if at all.

I had two pcs from you yesterday - July 19 & 24telling me that all was well & Max lovely. They really are a good thing, these pcs for the one reason that they give me news of you 3-4 weeks old, instead of the 8, 9 & 10 weeks of normal our letters. And as you say, they are almost as good as cables, unless it is something very urgent. I hope the next cable that passes between us will be from me, to say I am coming home.

The most fortunate man in my Coy is my C.S.M. Jack. His wife & family - 2 daughters - were evacuated from Palestine to Durham, S.A. And this week , I

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managed to get him a job escorting prisoners of war, to Durham. It is a 6-8 week round trip there & back & he gets 10 days leave there. What a piece of luck for him, he was so delighted. I was very pleased to be able to fix it for him, as he is a good husband & father, & has not been doing any mucking about up here.

Thornton & Biblings were duly Court Martialled on Monday - found guilty of course although I do not know this officially - severely reprimanded. It really is ridiculous, such a waste of everybody's time & so bloody gutless & weak on the part of the president in particular, the members too. I have a hell of a lot I could say about it which I had better not put down here. But when I know officially & the sentence is confliced. I intend to give "Higher Authority" the benefit of my views, in a letter - or shall we say, a memorandum! Anyway, I managed to get rid of Thornton on Wednesday, by means of palming him off onto Col. Leicester at P.R.T.D. - he was a bit browned off about it, but agreed that I could not do with the bloody youth hanging about on my hands. Biblings I have to hang onto - but I have confined him strictly to barracks, just to make things unpleasant for him.

By the way darling, you will probably understand anyway - but just to make quite sure - my

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address is unchanged after the move, just M.E.F. as usual. Oh blast & damn it, as you say, why did we ever leave N. Ireland? As I can think of no new or original reason, I will just leave it at that rhetorical statement. On looking up "rhetorical" in my Fowler (I often check on myself nowadays) he says "the assumption is that only one answer is possible, that if the hearer is compelled to make it mentally himself it will impress him more than the speaker's statement". In other words, you know it was a fool.

Do you remember the day we left Warrenpoint, the awful train journey & the worry of out our mistake, & then that ghastly midnight trek round Belfast to find a room in a Hotel - how we eventually had some tea in our room, & then in spite of being so very tired, we slipped into one bed & made love very quietly & gently. It was always so lovely sweetheart when we made love in that way - & then we very quickly and surely went to sleep marvellously close together, happy & content that was Max's last chance to have been conceived in Ireland.

I was talking at the beginning of this letter about having our reward when we meet again - & I have been thinking quite a lot lately - especially since Max was born, that I am a believer in compensations. Not for any superstitious reasons or because of luck - but as a matter of act

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& certainty. I am quite certain & I think you are too, that our new life together is going to be happier & more interesting & more exciting in every way than ever before. The very fact of this posting has made us think of each other in a more detailed way than ever before & then I was leaving you to the dangers of child birth & bombing & perhaps invasion - & you saw me going off to join an unknown campaign in the Middle East. I think our marriage was a miracle of happiness & love & passion & contentment & you my darling (you said in your letter before the birth that you had been happier than you ever thought was possible. Neither of us dared say more - & yet now I know that nothing is impossible, that now we really have even greater happiness & love to look forward to - & that it will last forever. That will be our reward & compensation for the pain & misery of this posting. Our everlasting love was assured before - beyond all doubt, & we could very well have done without - this rending asunder of our lives - but now it has happened I insist on my theory of our reward. Who will insist that we begin to have it soon? Please sweetest angel darling. wish for me like I wish for you & somebody may answer our prayers & wishes. Love & XX to Max And all dearest love to my lovely beloved wife Barbara. XXXXHarryXX

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