大象传媒

Philip Blair (b 1939) recalls:

At the end of World War II, two prisoners of war used to come up to Winterbourne Gunner, when I was a child, growing up in Wiltshire.

One, I recall, was called Elkhardt (?spelling) and there was another, who I think was called Horst Ingleman (?spelling).

My father, Harold Blair, was the local vicar and he regularly used to go to the nearby POW camp where he was ex officio chaplain.

One of the POWs, I think it was Elkhardt, made me a beautiful model of a Spitfire, out of wood. A lovely thing.

There weren't any toys around so you can imagine I was overjoyed.

And one of the POWs mended my pedal car. Not just mended it. It was beautifully revamped. New front, in wood, and repainted.

I must have been about 6 at the time, so this would have been around 1945 or 1946, something like that.

After the war, when he left the UK and returned to Germany, Elkhardt invited my parents, Harold and Honor, to visit him.

And, in due course, they did.

Many years later, we found a picture amongst my parents' belongs. A painting, signed by a K, or H, or M Elkhardt; it seems it was a gift from one of the POWs.

It was dated 1935, so had been painted before the war got in the way of friendships for so long. And before Elkhardt and my parents had met in those strange circumstances of war-time Britain.

It looks like it is a German street scene.

So, I suspect Elhkardt gave my parents a picture he'd painted some years before when he met Harold and Honor again, in Germany, some time after the war was over.

60 years on, I can still count to 12 in German, ein, zwei, drei... and that's only because of my childhood friends, the POWs.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.