14 Jun 1943, John Charter's wartime journal

Submitted by HK Bill on Mon, 08/02/2021 - 10:59

At the beginning of this camp I found three of these stiff backed record books and three paper backed issue and receipt books lying about near the godowns along the road. Two of the paper backed books I gave away (one to Tim when he started to learn Russian) and Yvonne used one of the stiff backed books for keeping the Baby Clinic records in the early days. The front portion of this book is occupied with recipes which she wrote in the early days of this camp – the days when our minds were incessantly occupied with thoughts of food. We hope they will come in useful some day! Now my diary has to overflow into this book as the other paper backed book has been used as our scrap book. Please God I shall not finish this book at Stanley!

Yesterday Y received another letter from England; this time from her Aunt, Mrs Elsie Cooper, written on the 26th June 1942. That is even slower than mail carried by the clippers of yore! It told how they had heard the news of our safety through the Foreign Office at home and how her cable to Chère had crossed one from Chère to her. It sounds as though Chère really got down to it and indulged in a real orgy of cable writing! The rest of the letter contained Crowley family news. This for me at present, is not easy to follow or take a vast interest in, for I have yet to meet the majority of Y’s relatives. She has yet to meet a single relative of mine!

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