War Times Stories Of Real People Within the Three Counties And Surrounding Area’s
28/04/2014 Margaret Stannard - Berkhamsted, Herts
It would seem that Potten End has some untold stories that the older generation could
unravel regarding their war time experiences. As we have just moved into sheltered
accomodation and are surrounded by many of the older generation it would be a very
pleasant task to try to find out some of those untold stories.
One wartime connected story concerned our next door neighbour on the other side -
an elderly lady who was Jewish and German and came to England in the 1930's when
the German children were considered at great risk because of their race.
I recently read an article in the newspaper regarding an elderly lady whose name
was Eileen Nearne. It was reported that she would spend most days in a square in
Torquay and that eventually she was found dead in her flat.
Owing to the absence of any relatives the police were called to sort out the paperwork
found in the flat. They discovered that there was a niece by the name of Odile who,
when informed of the death of her aunt immediately came to England
It was discovered that Elaine had in fact been an agent assigned to S.O.E. She
had been in the F.A.N.Y s and had been active in France during the Second World War.
She had been captured and tortured by the Germans but had survived the ordeal and
had returned to England after the end of the war. Nobody would have thought that
she would have had such a chequered wartime career.
I was very interested in Elaine's story because of my next door neighbour. Until
she died nobody knew anything about her other than she was a marvellous gardener
and was always very polite to everybody. It was only when she died that we discovered
that she too had been in the F.A.N.Y.s and had travelled across much of the continent
and Egypt.
I think your site and book is wonderful, keep up the hard work and thank you for
giving a page where people of the local area (three counties) can add their war time
memories ..
I have included these photo’s of my neighbour, who sadly passed away a little while
ago.
Margaret Stannard
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