The Free French at our Home

I was not born when the war was in progress but came into the world in 1947, but the story I have was told to me by my parents, sadly now no longer with us.

My parents lived in Camberley, Surrey and had not long been married when the war commenced. They had also just bought their first home at Diamond Ridge and moved into it in 1938. When the war came along anyone with a spare room had to have lodgers and my parents, along with some of their neighbours, chose to take in members of General de Gaulle's Free French Army. He had a base quite near to my parents home, on Old Dean Common. They were nearly all young men in their early 20's and far from home. Many of them were airmen and some only had a few words of English and others none at all.

My parents shared what food they had with these young men, and this was not a lot as rationing was in progress. My parents also had my grandmother living with them.

The young men must have felt extremely fortunate to find themselves in the homes of ordinary English people. Most of them stayed for only a few months and then they were posted overseas or were parachuted back into France.

Even after the airmen had left Camberley for overseas duty they continued to write to my parents just to thank them for the kindness they had received. Most of those that stayed with my parents didn't survive the war but were killed on active duty fighting for the freedom of France. One who did survive was a Robert Durand and he eventually made his way back to France and to his family, they lived in Northern France. He had a wife and a young son and he hadn't seen them for five years. After France was liberated and he was back in his home town again, it was then that he wrote to my parents expressing his joy at being back on French soil again after so long.

The letters they sent to my parents range from a full air mail letter to a short Christmas card and came from all over the world. I have kept these as a reminder of the brave young men from that time.

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