by Vicky Unwin
No more now,
Heaps of love,
Sheila
c/o Fleet Mail Office Alexandria
17/10/43
My dear Ma – I was delighted yesterday to have 3 letters from you 87/89 (wrongly numbered for I have had 87) since I have been in Cairo my mail has been held up. I don’t think I shall be here very much longer alas and alack, as the man I was to work for has gone home – so I shall be in the drafting pool once more. I shall do everything I possibly can to avoid going back to C in C Levant as far as I can see, there is no job on this station for me – a confirmed 2/O unless they check out and demote one of the ailing 2/O’s and so, as I always say, it is no advantage being promoted as you always get stuck. However, this time, if I possibly can, I am going to hang out for India, if not with my old people. I know they will want lots of Cypher people in Delhi. The only alternative to India is, as far as I can see, to go to Suez as a P.C.O. [Principal Cypher Officer] – they will need a Wren one in due course – I wouldn’t mind going there at all actually. The work of course wouldn’t be very thrilling, except that everything through the canal goes there and there is quite a good traffic these days and also you have a very gay time there. But to be in charge of a whole Cypher office is not up my tree, I hate doling out bottles (of which there are always thousands) and I dislike being in charge of Wrens. I really want a job more on my own. However, I am lying low to see how much longer they will let me stay here undetected, for I have already written a letter to Idwal in Delhi to say if he can use me to send a signal now. I do so hope I shall be allowed to go. I really don’t want to have to stay in the Levant. We have a new C in C and new secretary, so that may help.
… I am glad R will be going to her Octu [Officer Cadet Training Unit] at last. I hate the sound of all those people she mixes with. There are 2 WAAF officers in my room here, both of whom are extremely nice. There are a lot of them out here, but very few O.R.s. [other ranks]. What has happened to this N.Z. bloke she was so keen on? I have been having a very quiet but most enjoyable time here … But it is such a marvellous change to be away from all the Alex crowd. I have grown extremely unsociable – dislike more people than I like – and hate communal life. What shakes me is that several of my old friends turned me down flat on my promotion – which shows that they couldn’t have been very true friends, could they? One of them is reputed to have said I was too high and mighty to have anything to do with her, but as I immediately rang her up on my return to Alex, was certainly not met half way. NOR was I ever told how nice it was for me to be promoted. I rather gathered jealousy had crept in. So I washed my hands of all of them save those I knew were true friends, and consequently there was a lot of discussion – But I feel sure I did right – why be hypocritical and pretend to be friendly with people when you aren’t especially when they say rather horrid things behind one’s back. So you can guess to return to Alex and to turn an acting 2/O out of her job would be a bad thing!
Yes, all are well in Italy, and Robin in Persia. Idwal wrote last from Bombay and said that as he was jobless he didn’t think he could fix me up. Do you know that Warren Tute wangled a jeep for his personal use out of GHQ here, took it to Malta, plus its driver, L/Cpl Askew and they have taken them both on to India without any reference to GHQ. I think it is a scream – Warren is the person who had tea with me at the Goldie’s, he used to be in Alex … He is very arty, writes plays, is terribly witty and amusing, knows all the stage and screen stars and really rather a dear. Anyway he did his damnedest to get me to India – I think I will write to him and see if he can pull a string or 2 to get me there in another capacity! Apparently he disliked the 2/O in charge at Gib, wrote to Admiralty and said so, and she was removed! And he’s only a Pay Lieut. R.N.! … With much love, Sheila,
Your Xmas present is on its way – I have one just like it. From John.
Please address me to the above for the time being. Exactly 3 years ago today that I went to Dundee!
Sadly all her plans come to naught and she finds herself back in Alexandria again, but is undeterred in her efforts to move elsewhere, as we shall see over the next few months:
C in C Levant 23/10
My dear Ma – as you can see I am back in Alex once more – and in my old job as DCO [Duty Cypher Officer] in the Cypher Office! And you can guess how annoyed I was – so much so that I went straight to the secretary, who is new and awfully nice, and poured out my tale of woe – he was really very funny and agreed that I had been tossed about a bit in the last six months … The next day I had an enormous letter from Idwal in Delhi to say he’d not done an honest day’s work since he left Malta 3/4 months ago, so I know now that there’s no chance of going there at all!
… I am getting very involved with ‘les hommes’. Safety in numbers they say, but I’m not so sure – Bruce nearly had a fit when he heard I was in Cairo, and Robin in Turkey – no Iran – is going to try and do a course in this direction and come and see me. John, of course, is always John. I, having been bitten once or twice already, am much reserved, but the boot seems to be on the other leg, this time! Oh dear. Bruce says he is sending me some silk stockings from Italy – apparently they make them very well there and my latest shopping down here is to buy Robin a Signals side cap – which should be arriving today. We spend our time sending postal orders and cheques to each other asking for different purchases – and so life goes on!
… Yesterday I went to the Anglo-Swiss hospital and visited the merchant seamen, officers and men who are ill. They are very much neglected here and Audrey and I went with an old English governess and did enjoy it. We felt so sorry for them and they were all so cheery. I am going to take my canteen cigarette ration to them each week. Then I went to Eve’s for dinner and an N.O. was also there, played the piano. Today I am having my 1st singing lesson, visiting the dressmaker, and riding this afternoon, a jump I hope. Oh, Bruce’s stockings have arrived and are too short in the leg so I will send them to you. Tons of love, Sheila.
C in C Levant 5/11/43
My dear Daddy – One birthday letter deserves another – and I feel very guilty at not writing you a letter of your own before – I’ve calculated this should reach you on about the 16th – Many happy returns of the day! How is the garden – and the Jeep? When I come back home you must teach me to drive it – Riding I’ve learnt out here, but not driving.
As you know I am back in Alex and still working for C in C Levant. Our shadow is diminishing instead of increasing. Soon I feel we will fade out altogether and then what? It is awfully disappointing to see our fame lessening, operations moving further away and not even a Jerry on the door step! I hope to move on – somewhere – to a more operational job soon. I did hope very much to go to India to join my Cairo people, but I’m afraid there’s no hope of that now. Maybe we will all go to Italy, we shall see. Meanwhile, it is getting colder and colder here and last night I wore blues for the first time – we go into them finally on Sunday. It has been pouring with rain and yesterday I went into town only to find that my shoes leaked terribly! As they are the only white pair I have left, I was forced into blues for the night watch!
… John Pritty, whom I have known ever since I came out here, has just returned from Italy with the rest of his regiment. They are in Cairo, which would be the case just as I am transferred here. I am longing to hear all about Italy as from all the letters I have had it really sounds rather fun, though of course they tell us the dreadful things like typhoid disease which is raging in Sicily. I believe all the towns are out of bounds, I hear. I feel awfully disappointed at being stuck here, as having had a hand in perhaps the biggest allied invasion of the war to date, I simply long to follow up the good work and in amongst the people I have worked with before. Still, if I do nothing else in the war, I shall have had one very worth while job. I am terrified of being sent to a non operation base. As for coming home, it is difficult to say when that will be. After 2 1/2 years, they say, but then that’s dependent on relief and you know what
that means. I long to see more of the world before finally returning to UK, but maybe, if I am a Wren after the war as I want to be, I’ll have plenty of chances for that! In month or so I hope to take a long weekend and go down to Luxor with Diana Booth, for we both want to see Tutankhamun’s tomb and all the ancient remains down there – and if I have more leave I really want to go to Jerusalem – It would be criminal not to go to such places when they are so comparably near. We are meant to have 7 days every six months, but I don’t know how it will work out. Very much love, Sheila.
To her mother she is more frank about her affairs of the heart:
C in C Levant 9/11
My dear Ma – … I really am pleased R has gone to OCTU, perhaps she will forget all these queer sounding friends she seems to have made! … Life goes on the same out here – John and all his crowd are back again and he wants me to go up to Cairo this weekend to see him as he is not allowed to come to Alex. I want to see him and hear all about what has been happening but I am not a little nervous as to what he will be like. If he is still persistent and difficult I shall have to put an end to courting as it will do neither of us any good. Another surprise yesterday: a letter from Robin to say he is going to do a mountain warfare course in Syria and has been given 2 weeks’ leave in Egypt. So he is coming down here at the end of the month! It only needs Bruce to fix a liaison visit to M.E. to make the picture complete (and complex!) It will be rather fun to see him again as although I knew him very well on the way out these boat friendships are very difficult on dry land! So far I have been to the Anglo-Swiss hospital with Miss Decks to visit the merchant seamen. They are so nice, afterwards I went back with her for tea. She is a governess in one of the richest families in Alex – Syrian millionaires and live in a magnificent house in Rue Fouad. The daughter of the house sings with Elizabeth and that is how I met them. She is 20 and is seldom allowed out by herself. She is sent out of the room when others wish to talk of things she is not allowed to hear, and her brother has been given a special villa in which to entertain his friends, as some of them aren’t considered suitable for May to meet. Did you realise such feudalism could possibly exist today? I didn’t. I have had, for the past six weeks, ringworm on my arm! Yes, you will be horrified (as I was!) but you can catch anything out here. To make matters worse I dosed it with extra strong iodine and produced the most frightful burn on top of it! It hurt like hell, but I really believe both ailments are better now. The Superintendent and dear Admiral Alex are inspecting quarters tomorrow. I think I shall pin a notice with ‘sleeping’ on the door and hope for the best. Otherwise it means tidying up and as I’ve no room for anything it’ll be a hard job. I’m so sorry this is rather dull. I’m not wearing my ‘writing pants’.
With lots of love
Sheila
C in C Levant 15/11/43
My dear Ma –
… I have just come back from a very hurried weekend in Cairo. John was up there, and as he isn’t allowed to spend his leave in Alex, he asked me if I’d go up there. So in fear and trembling, I went. I must say he was awfully nice – no awful rows (that was what I was afraid of) and we both enjoyed it very much … John met me at the station, and I immediately went back, bathed and changed, we had lunch in a quiet restaurant off Kasr el Nil, and then rushed off to Gezira for the races. It was quite a lucky day for me – I backed a place every time except once and so kept fairly square. John didn’t do so well, and as he backed fairly heavily must have lost quite a bit. We then went off to Groppis for tea – I had to have my usual ice cream there, a Maytime – they are marvellous. In the evening we dressed up – me in my new flame brocade – and went out to Mena House for dinner. The hotel is being closed as GHQ are taking it over. I think it is a great shame as it must be one of the most famous hotels in the M.E. and certainly the favourite honeymoon haunt. It was warm and there was a moon, so of course we visited the Pyramids – they really are very beautiful at night and never fail to give me a thrill, they are so enormous – I had to leave at 12:30 on Sunday, so we drove up to the Citadel because I love standing so high up and looking at the whole of Cairo lying at one’s feet – you can see both groups of Pyramids – the Dead City, and the whole dishevelled mass which is Cairo, higgledy piggledy below – swarming with civilisation and strange noises. It fascinates me. John was awfully disappointed at returning here. He loved Italy, and I must say it does sound rather marvellous. He really has entirely changed. I like him far better … I am so glad R. has at last gone to OCTU. Maybe her sergeant friends will fade a bit now.
With heaps of love, Sheila.
C in C Levant 25/11
No 84
My dear Ma –
… Last week I sent you two parcels – one with 2lb icing sugar, and the other with 4 yards of rather nice thick woollen material which I think should make a very pretty winter dress. I loved the colour. Did you ever get the parcel full of odds and ends I sent off at the end of September and also a food parcel posted at the beginning of the same month – I do hope so.
I am rather disappointed because Robin, who was coming down here this week on leave has just written to say that the course he was going on has been cancelled and that anyway he has moved further away than ever. We are both rather cross about this as it would have been rather fun to meet again after over a year. Other news is rather scarce. I’ve not heard from John since I was up there for the weekend and think he must have moved. I am so pleased to have got that straight at last – Bruce is still in Italy, but I have been rather naughty in not writing lately – I just haven’t felt like it.
… I am touched that granddad thinks I am winning the war. I suppose I am in a way, but so is everyone else, wherever they may be – I really must write to him again. I have the periodical fit of writing to out-of-the-way people and granddad is usually included in the round – Oh yes – I was on watch the other evening when the phone rang and a voice said ‘is that you Sheila’ and it was Idwal Humphrey ringing up from Cairo. He hadn’t been doing any work at all in Delhi and old Pongo Moore, Admiral Ramsay’s secretary, sent a signal asking for his immediate return to UK. So he went back by air priority A! ... Heaps of love to you and Pa.
Sheila
C in C Levant
6.12.43
No. 96
My dear Ma, Sorry this is being typed, but I can’t find my pen anywhere. I’m doing it on my knee with Esmé’s portable, so don’t mind any mistakes. Your Christmas parcel with the lovely handkerchiefs arrived after only one month, which I think was rather good going – they really are marvellous and I am so short of handkerchiefs – the dhobies [laundry] are frightful here. The Almanack has been read through, but we’ve come to the conclusion we were all born on the wrong day, as nothing seems to work out all right! And the calendar reminds me of Cromer, and the Christmas card of being in Scotland, so you can see I have been thrilled with the whole thing … I had a real field day on Saturday, and felt awful after having spent so much money when you at home aren’t able to do so! I collected my beautiful nightie I have had made in pale gray blue crepe de chine with natural coloured lace trimming it (it really is so lovely I don’t think I shall ever dare wear it!) Then Mollie Rendell and I did a grand tour of the shops, when I fell for some very dark gray flannel to have a skirt made, and two lengths of Chinese silk in scarlet and a bright purple-gentian blue for blouses. Somehow, if you are clever, you can buy almost anything you want in the shops here, and I simply love pottering about the quaint little streets. Some of the shops are really tiny, just little square holes in the wall, with shelves and shelves packed with bales and bales of materials. If you are clever, you can bargain for your stuff, but it takes time and endless patience, as well as plenty of good temper and humour. The shopkeeper will like you if you laugh and joke, but won’t move an inch if you get cross. I have just had your newspapers and picture posts – thank you very much for sending them. I had, actually, seen the one with the article on Admiral Ramsay in it, but hadn’t a copy of my own, which na
turally I wanted. Having worked for him, and also knowing him socially in a small way, I think the writer’s criticism of him is very hard. He is said to be a bad mixer; well, as mere Third Officer, and the lowest of the low, I found him simply charming. He never failed to forget a name once he had been introduced to a person, and always gave one the impression he really was interested in you. For instance, once he invited me to his flat for lunch, together with several other members of our staff. I was the only girl there (and, in fact, the only women they had ever had to a meal in their flat), and there was no talking of shop with the other members of the staff, everything was brought down to my level, even to the point that I was the centre of all conversation. When he talks to you, he really looks straight at you, his eyes seeming to pass straight through you, and he gives you the impression that you are the only person that really matters. When my promotion came through, I remember we were all working feverishly in one of the halls, with pages of operation orders in piles all round the room, and I was sitting at a table pushing the orders complete into huge envelopes. The Admiral came through the hall with flags, and seeing me, came straight up to me and congratulated me on being promoted, and asked me why I hadn’t got my stripe up. I really do think that if I found him like this, the criticism of him as a bad mixer is wrong. One is given the impression that he is hard on his staff, who dislikes him, but that he gets the results from them the same. I think this is wrong, too, for everyone on our staff had not only extreme respect for the man, but great liking for him, and most of the staff officers had worked for him planning the North African campaign. When I met Commodore Douglas-Pennant on his return from Malta at a cocktail party on one of the ships, I congratulated him on an apparent ‘leg-up’ in the Naval world. But he told me he was lost without Admiral Ramsay, as he had worked with him so long a Chief Staff Officer. And I could well believe it. I will admit that he doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but then who but a fool himself would, and anyway, it doesn’t win the war to be weak in that respect. Having read this criticism, I really feel justly proud for having worked for him, and for being personally thanked by the Admiral in Cairo railway station just before everyone left for Malta, via Alex. And I felt such a fool too, for being thanked for what after all, was only my job, which I felt I’d scraped through anyhow because there’d been so much work to do I couldn’t possibly make it as efficient as I’d have liked. I’d give anything to work for him again. I am having a week’s leave in January, and plan to go to Jerusalem – have I told you this before? Our watches are very favourable for Christmas and New Year, but at the moment the prospects seem very dull, as everyone is away, and it’s so much more fun to spend Christmas with your friends. Oh dear, this seems to be all – a very happy Christmas to you, and a wonderful New Year. Heaps of love, Sheila.