HQ 4 Docks Group RE     MEF. . . .

Dearest. . . . .

General Orders have warned us that jumpy weather will delay mail from the UK posted after 1 December so we are all being patient about it, I hope ours is not too badly held up. All goes well, and I find, this job exceedingly agreeable, and have got it right in the palm of my hand in the most satisfactory way and tomorrow the great amalgamation comes into effect, with fine new sparkling Orders published, Special Orders of the Day; Administrative Instructions and what have you. Ian and I have been at it hard, and so has my good assistant here Redgrove and Clark at Alex, and the slightly bewildered Group HQ Clerks, not used to our methods have been jumping round.   We are also painting entrance gates and signs, blitzing police, changing slack systems for tighter ones, pep-talking Company Commanders and having a lovely time. Funny how one gets enthusiastic and how it becomes infectious and makes everyone happier. Apart of course from the cardinal main fact that I WANT TO GO HOME I’m intensely happy and busy and full of fun. Good that one’s short army career should end on an exciting, constructive and formative note.

Ian and I go to Fenara on Tuesday to see a company there, to Port Said on Thursday and to Alex for ten days on Saturday. He’s being very cooperative and only pants a little and complains about being overworked. He likes it really. He’s a quite brilliant Commander and is in every way In Command, things big and little.

 For the rest; the odd drink at the bar; the game of Poker-dice, an occasional snooze, Ball-game with Otto, who is relaxing a little, and gentle reading of The Woodlanders. Telephoned Henry last night about two Courts Martial I’ve made him prosecute for and he said the shoes have been sent and sandals follow.  I am sending a box of food tomorrow and shall send one a week now on to help your larder and points and coupons.  Say what you want. We have Jams and tongue and spam and ham and bully-beef, fruits and juices, crab and lobster, sardines and herrings, soap and dried fruit. Its not extravagant because it should help your Bunting Bills. It has to be tinned foods of course. If you don’t want them say so. I could pop in the odd bar of chocolate for other members of My House, if that were approved by the authority in command. You’re Detachment Commander, really, aren’t you!  O.C. Great Alne Detachment of the Group.

I have been thinking and if Richard decides to take on an Increase in Strength by a posting in of a brother he must be called William, Wilberforce, Wilfred or Willoughby because quite a lot of our household Possessions are liable to have his initials on them. I have, for example some fine blankets marked WD all ready for him.

Seven weeks is the first of February. That doesn’t mean anything at all, only ask any forward primroses to hold it if they can and Young Lambs to Take Note.

Yes indeed you shall come with me to Italy: One of the things in life I treasure is taking you to the San Carlos for Boheme and to Rome Opera House for Aida.   And to walk over the Ponte Vecchio at Florence, with all the little jewellers shops on it, and into the Palazzo  Medici where Lorenzo lived and Leonardo strutted in his youth, and to shew you the frescos in the chapel there.  And we must drive over the mountain route from Rome to Florence through Siena, and bathe and bask in the sun at Sorrento and climb the cathedral steps at Amalfi, and  stand at nine in the evening on the piazza hung ever Rome by the Villa Medici. And lunch at the Osteleri del’Orso by the Ponte Sant Angelo. You’ll like Syracusa too, and a little village I know of tucked away in the mountains behind Piombino.   We’ll bathe in our cove at Piombino, too, where you lie on your back in thirty foot of bottle green warm sea and look up into an interminable blue sky.  There is a Tobacco factory by the sea at Salerno where I would like to go, and a tobacco plantation where we slept tightly in the bottom of our little holes, and a certain Olive tree with wide roots under which I sat and read the telegram about Richard’s arrival.

But for now I Want To Go Home.
Bardin,  anyhow,  marleesh  the  delay.   Saida.
My love to you and to Richard Lion-skin.
Ever. . . . . . .

Hello Richard:
Comè state? Sperò ritornare fra sette settemane.
Tell Candy & Edward to stand-by.  Julian I know has a very full engagement book, & I shall not expect much of his very valuable time.  Emily & Victoria (or was it Albert) will I hope, have a word for me.
Be fond.
Ever.
Daddy.  X