THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking.

Oct 24 [1942]

My dear Tindall Robertson¹

But I must just say ‘thank you’ to my old companion of the Maresfield Hut for remembering my birthday – I often look back on those days with pleasure and largely because of the friends I made there – I wonder what has happened to them all – Do you remember the man next to me who every morning sang
“I often lie awake and think what an awful thing is work”
– But I am getting garrulous a clear sign of old age
Yrs

R. Vaughan Williams

1.  A cadet with VW at the Royal Garrison Artillery Cadet school at Maresfield and later at Bordon. See R.V.W.: a biography, pp.127-128.
2. The unheaded paper indicates a wartime birthday, probably VWs 70th. Tindall Robertson had presumably asked for VW not to trouble to reply.