大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Rachel Irven, a volunteer from Three Counties Action, on behalf of Brenda Taylor and has been added to the site with Brenda鈥檚 permission. Brenda fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

My husband鈥檚 grandmother died when her family were very young, and the job of bringing the family up, including the young Bill, passed to Lynda Richardson (my future mother-in-law) when she was only 11 herself. By the time of World War 2, Bill was an adult.
At the end of the war the family had no idea where Bill was, so Lynda wrote a letter (I think to the Home Office) to try and find his whereabouts. Eventually he was found. He was a prisoner of war who had been in Jersey during the German Occupation. He had been in hospital there and the family story is that he had had blood taken from him every day (maybe to use for transfusions?).
He came back to Durham very weak and ill, and in fact had to go into a Mental Hospital (Sedgefield) after these experiences. He was always compulsively washing his hands.
He never left the hospital, and eventually died there, sometime in the Sixties.
When I was younger, I worked in that hospital and remember him there. Later I went on to get married to his nephew.

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