大象传媒

My mother, Joan Endersby (Ambrose) was the only female driver in the Baldock/Royston (Hertfordshire) area enlisted to transport German and Italian prisoners of war from their camps to their places of work.

My father was serving overseas with the Herts & Beds Regiment. My sister was a baby and would accompany my mother each day (I had not then been born). My mother would walk about 2 miles from Weston to collect her lorry in Baldock. On many occasions the lorry proved difficult to start in the mornings. Not one of the male drivers offered to assist but always, one of the prisoners would ask permission to leave the line up, and would then turn the starting handle and start the engine.

The prisoners worked on various farms. My mother said that some of the farmers were very good to the prisoners and would supplement their meagre rations with potatoes and milk

She said that most of the prisoners were polite and courteous men who tried hard to talk to her in their limited English and often showed her photographs of their wives and children back home.

One day, a large official Army car stopped my mother whilst she was driving the prisoners. The senior officer enquired as to why my mother did not have an armed guard with her. My mother answered that there had been no need for this, but from then on, she was always accompanied by an armed guard!

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