Risborough Barracks
Shorncliffe
25/4/15
My darling girl,
You will I know forgive me for not writing you for the last 9 days when you know that during that time I have been on leave & visiting at Leeds & Mold & to make up for it I will give you an account of my doings during that time, I left here on the 15th in the morning & went first of all to Leeds where I arrived at my uncle's about 4 pm I found mother looking very well, my Aunt & Uncles & Cousins the same way, the eldest boy who is about 18 is in the Royal Army Medical Corps, I stayed at Leeds until the Saturday morning when I went on to Manchester where my Aunt Lizzie, you'll remember her met me at Victoria Station I spent about three hours at Manchester going to see another Aunt who lives there, bye the bye my Aunt Lizzie will probably write you as she would like to get one of my photos & if you can send her one of the photos of you & the chicks, she has always been a good trump to me & also thinks a lot of you, I got to Mold that same day about 5-30 pm which was a Saturday. Eunice & Iris had been meeting every train but did not know of this train so were not at the station, I however found my way to the Cross alright & had a splendid welcome, after supper I went to see the up street people & found them all very well Annie looks very well & very little altered but she has to be very carefull [sic], I saw a few more of my old friends that night some of them hardly knew me they say I am so much bigger than when I left Mold, on Sunday morning I went with Will & Iris to Pentre & of course met a lot more friends of yours mostly, all made very great enquiries after you & Ciss & the girls they all have a warm spot in there [sic] hearts for you & Ciss especially, after dinne Will & I went for a nice walk & had a nice confidential talk and I am glad to say that while Eunice is sometimes very trying, still from the way he talked & from what I saw I believe things are going along very smoothly, I will say this that during my stay I had the greatest kindness shown me by both Eunice & Will & not the slightest unpleasantness. Iris is a dear little girl & as you can imagine we were very great friends, every morning she would come into my bedroom & chat while I was dressing, I slept in the front room & was very comfortable. I was invited to tea to Mrs. G. Jones Victoria House, Janet Lloyd that was, Mrs. Lloyd was there & she was as glad to see me as if I'd been her own son, Janet has three fine bouncing boys, I went with them on Sunday night to Bethel Chapel & of course met a lot more of my old friends, Janet's husband was at Rhyl recuperating from a breakdown, she was going there on Monday morning & was to meet Llewelyn her brother & Jeanie who was staying at Llewelyn's so as I intended going to see them all anyway I decided to go with her, we went by the nine o'clock train & as soon as we arrived I wired to Jack Lloyd to come to Rhyl, which he did with his wife on the 3 o'clock train. Jeanie Lloyd looks quite a lot older funny thing she arrived in England about the same time as I did after six weeks on the water & a very anxious time, she is expecting again in June, about 4 o'clock Jack & Llew & I drove to Llew's farm about 4 miles from Rhyl had tea there, saw his wife & then caught the six train to Denbigh with Jack & his wife to his farm which is about 4 miles from Denbigh, they were both very disappointed that you did not go to see them when you were over, but I explained how tied you were with the children, I stayed with Jack until Tuesday night, & had a hard job to get away then, during my stay there he drove me to see Mary & her family, of course as you know kid they are all like brothers & sisters to me & were just as glad to see me as if I had really been their brother, well I got back to Mold on Tuesday night, on Wednesday I spent most of the day calling to see old friends all of whom were asking after you & the kiddies amongst them being your Aunt Cissie , Purll Glas , your new Aunt Ella who is a very nice little woman, she told me that your Uncle Hughie was in charge of a transport & was there in Canada no doubt going to bring back some of the 2nd Contingent, by jove I wish he could have brought you & the kiddies back. I also went to see your Aunt Mary who was delighted. I had to stay there to tea, Mr. Littlewood asked if I was a teetotaler I said no. He disappeared for a little while & when we had tea he put some whiskey into it, you know it was like taking bad medicine of course I pretended I liked it, well old girl, I enjoyed myself there. It wasn't much of a tea but it was the welcome I got &
[page missing]
...brick & no doubt the woman's part is the hardest in this war & may God bless them for the sacrifices they are making. You are managing splendidly sweetheart I think I will let you manage my financial affairs right along after I get back. Well darling I dont think I have any more to tell you this time, love to all at the farm, the Girls & fondest love to you & the kiddies.
Your loving hubby,
Jim
P.S. One result of my visit to Mold has been to heal the breach between Lizzie & Eunice. Neither had been to each others houses since Ciss left. Ciss knows what the trouble was but after all as the song says. "Life's too short to quarrel" & I am glad they are friendly again I should imagine a girl like Lizzie would help to steady Eunice.
Jim
