THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

[late August 1940]

Dear Maud

(war time paper)

Please take care of your health it is every ones duty now
I don’t do much – I’ve made my hay & weeded my garden – both I hope of ‘national importance’ and I’ve learnt how to put out a fire with a stirrup pump.
Also I’ve promised to go collecting for wartime savings!
Do remember that everything of this kind is war work & helps to down Germany – so don’t hold out for a more definite war job.
I know Douglas has gone to the I.O.M.¹
The enclosed is just out at last – it seems rather a dim memory now.²
love from
RVW

1. Douglas Kennedy, who had been director of the English Folk Dance Society, was appointed to the staff of an internment camp on the Isle of Man in 1940.
2. The Liverpool Daily Post reports on the publication of scores of Six Choral Songs to be Sung in time of War, and Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus, on 2 September 1940; possibly VW is referring to one of these.