大象传媒

As Eddie came up to the family home he went round the back of the house and entered through the kitchen door. Their, curled up on the floor, was his dog Tess. Tess barred her teeth and started to growl as this man was a stranger to her, but as Eddie said "Whats the matter girl don't you know me." Tess immediately recognised his voice and was all over Eddie as anyone would greet an old friend.

Bill.

Eddie made arrangements to go to Sidcup in Kent to visit the parents of Thomas William Rolph. Bill Rolph had been Eddie's best mate in the camp and before being captured they had been in the same regiment. Bill had died in the camp in May 1944. When Eddie arrived at their house he was welcomed as a long lost friend and a party had been prepared for him. Eddie found it very emotional that they could celebrate his return from the war, but they had lost their own son.

Trude and Maggi.

Eddie had so much to talk about he lost his voice, but once he had settled in he started writing letters. He wrote to Trude and she wrote back. Eddie wanted to go back to Austria but either the government would not let him or perhaps his Mother, Grace, would not let him go as she could not bear to see him go away again. Eddie also wrote to any government department and politicians he could think of telling them about Maggi in Austria and how she had been so helpful to him and other POW's. He also told them about Maggi's daughter, Gretchel, who was in London. The government granted permission for Maggi and her husband to travel to England.
So it came that two mothers who had helped each others children during the war met. Eddie told Maggi that she could go to any shop in the town and buy anything she wanted as a thank you for her help while he had been a prisoner. She chose a brooch from a jewellers.

Eddie had hoped that perhaps Trude would have come with Maggi, but she was frighted to travel all the way to England. They still wrote to each other but one day Eddie received a letter from Gretchel, and the news was very upsetting for Eddie, as it said that Trude was seeing another man in Austria.

Finally.

Eddie married a local girl and fathered four children. He had many years taking game birds from other peoples land in the area and never once getting caught!He won many trophies racing his pigeons and still had time to run a small holding rearing pigs and chickens and have a full time job as a fitter on the local electricity board.

It's a small world.

One day Eddie was returning home from work from Cambridge. A soldier was thumbing a lift so the lorry was pulled over to the side of the road. The soldier was told that they were going as far as St. Neots if he wanted a lift. The man put his kit bag in the back of the lorry and climbed into the cab. The soldier started telling the story that during the war he was on manoeuvres in St. Neots. He was captured during the war games exercise and taken to the other sides headquarters, a large house opposite the local church. At the back of the house was a brewery and all men captured were placed in the brewery's yard. He said that in the morning a lady came out the house and brought cups of tea and sandwiches for him and others who had been caught. The soldier said that he told the lady that she shouldn't be looking after them as they were prisoners. Her reply was that her son was a real prisoner of war and she hoped that he was being looked after just as well. Eddie turned to the soldier and told him that the lady had been his mother Grace.

Eddie passed away in 2003 aged 85.

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