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[Page] 116
[continued from page 115]

London staying the night with Monty and
Madeline Balfour, very dear friends. There
are few establishments in the country where
subject to rationing life is still
carried on in much the same style as
before the war. My own is one such home
thanks to Catherine & her sister, and the
Balfour’s is another, where the admirable
Blancheflower and his wife, keep up a
proper standard of living! Before I reached
home on my return journey. I vowed that
never again, unless in an absolute necessity,
would I venture South of the Borders until
porters returned in sufficient numbers
and competitions for seats in trains grew
less acute. At the Waverley station I had
to haul a heavy suit case along the
suburban platform, up and down the
crowded staircases leading to & from the
station bridge, and finally stand for half
an hour in a queue waiting for a taxi!
I was a weary traveller when I got home!

22nd March 1944
Since the middle of June last year I have occupied
the greater part of each weekday assisting in the
Royal Naval Libraries Section in Edinburgh
where books are collected for H.M. [His Majesty’s] Ships and

transferred to London for distribution. Volumes
that come to us in a tattered condition are cleaned
and rebound by voluntary lady workers and
my task is to hand-print, with pen, or brush,
the titles on the backs. Though at first I was not
very expert, continuous practice has enabled
me to make a very creditable performance
Cecil and Christian after a long, weary wait,
ready for the voyage at short notice, departed
from this country about a month ago and
after a voyage in convoy through the
Mediterranean have reached Aden, as we have
learned by cable. If they have not done so already,
in a few days the family party will be united
after a long separation.
On 1st March my brother Jim died at St.
Cuthberts, Melrose, 3.30 in the afternoon,
passing away peacefully in his sleep,
within a few days of his 82 birthday.
Though wonderfully robust he was never,
what I would consider, a very sound man,
but it was only in the last year of his life
that some of us noticed signs of failing
health. He had an attack of influenza,
which, as frequently happens, affected his
heart and he suffered from breathlessness.
[continued on page 117]

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Jane F Jamieson