Dear Mother
Many thanks for those S.B. bands. If some day you see in the paper I have the D.S.O. you’ll know it’s for the smart appearance of the Stretcher bearers, & I’ll give you a bit of it.
Please send me another pair of shorts. I’ll probably be sending some thick clothes home for you to keep safely!
Tell Ben I dined with the nice looking Stephens last night. “Dined” sounds grand but I wish you could see the conditions. The radishes are coming up.
Love to all
yr loving son
Richard
Topher is clearing away breakfast & sends his love.
You need’nt send any more porridge.
Richard’s teasing can fall a little flat when you read it, but it suggests he was fun and funny in person.
When I commented to my mother how much nicer Paul seemed than Richard, based on these letters, she responded rather tartly that it was the other way round in real life.
I suspect Richard may have had deployed that deliberate charm which is so bewitching when it’s focused on you, and so devastating when it’s withdrawn.