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CWS 180804D 16:42:04 — 16:43:52

This story has been added by CSV volunteer Linda Clark on behalf of the author Peter Gilson. His story was given to the Trebah Video Archive, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2004. The Trebah Garden Trust understand the site’s terms and conditions.

There were many representatives of foreign forces in Falmouth during the war, mainly naval personnel and notable of these were the Dutch. Even up to 1940 when the Netherlands were invaded by the Germans, the Dutch Navy was in and out of Falmouth quite a lot. After the Netherlands were invaded they originally decided to evacuate all their naval personnel to the Pacific, to their colonial possessions, the Dutch East Indies as they were called then. They didn’t have time to get them settled down because the Japanese took that over. Due to the fact that the Dutch knew Falmouth they decided to use Falmouth as their main naval base during the war.

What was then a lovely house outside Mylor called Ennis (now virtually a ruin) was taken over as the HQ and training school for the Dutch naval officers. They were a presence in Falmouth up to the end of the war and they were very active during the war as they didn’t like the Germans at all. They personal experience of what the Germans had done to their own country and they didn’t like it at all. They were very active on the anti aircraft front, very active on the vessels in the harbour and they were always the first ones to open up. They were always extremely smart and well turned out and many of them married local girls. There are many families in and the district with distinctly Dutch names

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