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'My grandma' and our Belgian Refugees

One day during World War 2 'my grandma' was visiting her sister who owned a baby linen shop in Meadow Street, Preston, Lancashire, when a young woman carrying a baby came into the shop to shelter from the rain and to buy some warm dry clothes for the baby. It turned out they were Belgian refugees.

The mother's name was Gill. When the Germans invaded Belgium Gill's family fled to England in her father's fishing boat. They left their homes and belongings taking with them only what they could carry. Gill's father was more used to trawling the Russian fishing grounds than sailing along the English Channel, but he set a course for England, the safest place he could think of for his family — the Germans couldn't walk into Britain without first negotiating that little stretch of water — The English Channel. The boat was fired on as it made its way up the west coast of England and they were forced into the port of Swansea.

It was in Swansea that Gill met her husband Oscar Vanloo and where their son Michel was born. Oscar was 16 years old and at sea as a young trawlerman when the Germans invaded Belgium. His fishing boat couldn't return to Belgium and so he too arrived in Swansea in a fishing boat. His family had to suffer the German occupation and it was 4 years before he saw them again.

Eventually Gill, Oscar and Michel were transferred from Swansea to Preston, Lancashire in the north of England and billetted in a school near our home and where they met 'my grandma'.

On learning about their terrible ordeal 'my grandma' offered them two rooms in her double-fronted terraced house — the front room downstairs and upstairs for the duration of the war. This was a very generous offer considering that no-one knew how long the War was going to last. 'My grandma' had had a very hard life, but she was very kind and warm hearted and had a lovely face. She always wore a hat when she was outside and her hair was very long and silvery grey and wound up in a bun at the nape of her neck.

During their stay in England, Michel's father, a fisherman, joined the Merchant Navy and his mother, Gill, worked. Our mother looked after my sister and I, and with grandma's help looked after the baby (Michel) during the day.

At the end of the War they returned home, but Michel came back with his mother when he was about 11 years old to visit everyone, but especially 'my grandma' and he also met our brother, who was born after the War, and they became great pals and spent their school holidays together in this country and in Belgium.

We are still in close contact with Michel who has a shop in Ostend called 'Michel's shop' near the railway station and English tourists have no difficulty in guessing where he picked up his Lancashire dialect. He is an only one and has adopted our family as his. His mother is still living. He doesn't have any children of his own, but is father and grandfather to the sons and grandchildren of his present wife, Rita. She is the daughter of two young people who didn't flee to England, but were taken to Germany and thrown into the Nazi work camps. She was conceived in Germany, but born in Belgium, and her father died within a few years of returning home after the War due to bad health as a result of the terrible treatment he had received at the hands of the Germans.

Every couple of years Michel, with his wife Rita, visit Preston and we, my husband and myself and our family visit Ostend and keep in touch by telephone and email.

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