I continue to be intrigued by the way a story can go off in any one of a number of directions none of which were what I had planned.
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So on January 1st I posted a piece on a diary which my friend Ann had come across.
It was for the year 1918 and so with the promise of more pages to come from Ann I thought it would all unfold in a fairly straight forward way and amongst the accounts of New Year resolutions might be some references to the Great War.
As it turned out the diary had no comments, reflections or even the odd descriptions instead we had a set of notes on French trains complete with locomotive numbers, and dates they were collected which I suppose was not surprising given that this was the “The Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders’ Pocket Diary, 1918" price 2 shillings and sixpence, published by the Locomotive Publishing Company of 3 Amen Corner London EC 4.
And this took me off on a journey of discovery which brought me face to face with the three railway apprentices who set up a railway magazine which became a publishing company and lasted for nearly 60 years.
Nor was that the end of the story because contained in the diary was an envelope addressed to the secretary of the RAF Escaping Society, at 83 Portland Place posted in France in 1952.
A search so far has not revealed anything of the named individual but the society was "founded in 1945 as a non sectarian and non political society and existed to give financial assistance to surviving helpers and dependants of those who lost their lives assisting members of the Royal Air Forces to evade and escape, make charitable donations in their countries to worthy causes, as an expression of thanks, encourage visits between the helpers and the helped and foster good relations and friendship between their countries.”*
It continued in existence till 1995 when it was officially wound up having been established with a mandate of 50 years.
And as I came to the end of the story, Mr Stanton of The Escape Lines Memorial Society kindly provided with a little more information,
"The Royal Air Forces Escaping Society was born on 11 June 1945, one month after the war in Europe had finished. In September 1945, the rules of the RAFES were established in the British Embassy in Paris.
The Society was open to all RAF and Dominion airmen who successfully escaped from captivity or evaded enemy capture between 03 September 1939 and 9 May 1945. (Dates different for Far East).
The Society had a mandate of fifty years after which they laid their Standard up in Lincoln Cathedral in September 1995.
The Society had offices in London throughout, the last one being 206 Brompton Road, London.
On the closure of the Society in September 1995, many of their committee and members transferred to the WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS) and continue with us today (many were members of both Societies).
Our Society also includes Army Escapers, Resistance Groups, SOE members and similar organisations throughout the world.
At the end of the war many ladies from the FANY trawled through thousands of debriefing reports from aircrew evaders to extract where possible the names of the people who had assisted the evaders.
An Awards Bureau was set up in Paris and Brussels and after confirmation with aircrew evaders awards were given out.
The people that had assisted aircrew had affectionately been called 'helpers'.
It is quite a long and interesting story of bravery under very dangerous situations.
The 'helpers' had never met their 'parcels' before, could not speak their language, had hardly any food or clothing, yet shared all they had with their evaders.
They acted as couriers, mountain guides and safe-house keepers.
The expected life span of a helper on an escape line was 90 days. Very few survived the war unscathed.
On capture they could only expect torture before execution for the men and torture followed by a concentration camp for women. Many women died in the camps.
I must also point out the army had their own organisation known as the Army POW Escape Club. This was also set up in 1945 and disbanded in 2000. The army Escapers also joined ELMS and a number continue with us today.
Although most evaders in western Europe were aircrew, most escapers were army, and a mixture of both used the escape lines.
In Italy the vast majority of escapers were army.
No escape lines existed as such and the Italian escapers were assisted by people from the mountain villages called 'contadini'.
If caught the 'contadini' also suffered the same fate as the helpers in Western Europe.
Italy was much more difficult for the evaders and escapers than western Europe. No official escape lines. No transport. High mountains. Deep snow and freezing temperatures. With the only way out by mountain walking. Italy has been for many years over shadowed by western Europe yet it was a more difficult area.
There were also Germans, fascists and Bounty Hunters to contend with."
Sadly our envelope offered up no letter, or a name for the person who sent it but I am sure this is not the end of the story.
Pictures; of the diary, 1918 and envelope, 1952 from the collection of Ann Love
Additional material © Roger Stanton, 2015
* Royal Air Forces Escaping Society, http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/
** The Escape Lines Memorial Society,www.ww2escapelines.co.uk & rogerstanton.elms@tpiz.co.uk
It was for the year 1918 and so with the promise of more pages to come from Ann I thought it would all unfold in a fairly straight forward way and amongst the accounts of New Year resolutions might be some references to the Great War.
As it turned out the diary had no comments, reflections or even the odd descriptions instead we had a set of notes on French trains complete with locomotive numbers, and dates they were collected which I suppose was not surprising given that this was the “The Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders’ Pocket Diary, 1918" price 2 shillings and sixpence, published by the Locomotive Publishing Company of 3 Amen Corner London EC 4.
And this took me off on a journey of discovery which brought me face to face with the three railway apprentices who set up a railway magazine which became a publishing company and lasted for nearly 60 years.
Nor was that the end of the story because contained in the diary was an envelope addressed to the secretary of the RAF Escaping Society, at 83 Portland Place posted in France in 1952.
It continued in existence till 1995 when it was officially wound up having been established with a mandate of 50 years.
And as I came to the end of the story, Mr Stanton of The Escape Lines Memorial Society kindly provided with a little more information,
"The Royal Air Forces Escaping Society was born on 11 June 1945, one month after the war in Europe had finished. In September 1945, the rules of the RAFES were established in the British Embassy in Paris.
The Society was open to all RAF and Dominion airmen who successfully escaped from captivity or evaded enemy capture between 03 September 1939 and 9 May 1945. (Dates different for Far East).
The Society had a mandate of fifty years after which they laid their Standard up in Lincoln Cathedral in September 1995.
The Society had offices in London throughout, the last one being 206 Brompton Road, London.
On the closure of the Society in September 1995, many of their committee and members transferred to the WW2 Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS) and continue with us today (many were members of both Societies).
Our Society also includes Army Escapers, Resistance Groups, SOE members and similar organisations throughout the world.
At the end of the war many ladies from the FANY trawled through thousands of debriefing reports from aircrew evaders to extract where possible the names of the people who had assisted the evaders.
An Awards Bureau was set up in Paris and Brussels and after confirmation with aircrew evaders awards were given out.
The people that had assisted aircrew had affectionately been called 'helpers'.
It is quite a long and interesting story of bravery under very dangerous situations.
The 'helpers' had never met their 'parcels' before, could not speak their language, had hardly any food or clothing, yet shared all they had with their evaders.
They acted as couriers, mountain guides and safe-house keepers.
The expected life span of a helper on an escape line was 90 days. Very few survived the war unscathed.
On capture they could only expect torture before execution for the men and torture followed by a concentration camp for women. Many women died in the camps.
I must also point out the army had their own organisation known as the Army POW Escape Club. This was also set up in 1945 and disbanded in 2000. The army Escapers also joined ELMS and a number continue with us today.
In Italy the vast majority of escapers were army.
No escape lines existed as such and the Italian escapers were assisted by people from the mountain villages called 'contadini'.
If caught the 'contadini' also suffered the same fate as the helpers in Western Europe.
Italy was much more difficult for the evaders and escapers than western Europe. No official escape lines. No transport. High mountains. Deep snow and freezing temperatures. With the only way out by mountain walking. Italy has been for many years over shadowed by western Europe yet it was a more difficult area.
There were also Germans, fascists and Bounty Hunters to contend with."
Sadly our envelope offered up no letter, or a name for the person who sent it but I am sure this is not the end of the story.
Pictures; of the diary, 1918 and envelope, 1952 from the collection of Ann Love
Additional material © Roger Stanton, 2015
* Royal Air Forces Escaping Society, http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/
** The Escape Lines Memorial Society,www.ww2escapelines.co.uk & rogerstanton.elms@tpiz.co.uk
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