From then on they invited two German prisoners from the camp at Castle Martin to their home in Pembroke every fortnight. Emlyn and Batchie James were among the many British families who invited German prisoners to their home on Christmas day. Just before Christmas 1946, the British authorities relaxed the rules on contacts between British people and German prisoners of war. After her time at Catterick Camp, she returned to North Wales and married Emlyn James. She was stationed at Catterick Military Hospital as a clerk. Batchie was enrolled with the Red Cross at the age of 18 and served as a VAD for just over a year.
Read moreĮlizabeth Jane Griffiths known as Batchie Born in Llandingat, Carmarthenshire, in 1899. Her son became the surrogate ‘man of the house’ and it was not until 1968 that he felt that he could leave his mother to get married himself. To help make ends meet she took in washing, sat with the dying, and laid out corpses for the local undertakers. Not only was Gertrude in mourning but also on the poverty line, forced to bring up 2 small children on her own. It was not until many months later friends of George visited her to relate that George was a member of a bombing party which went to a flank and were never seen again. George’s wife Gertrude, was heartbroken and never gave up hope of her husband being found, writing to the War Office on several occasions to try and gain more information. According to the battalion diary they suffered 1,130 casualties on that day. His body was never recovered, and he is commemorated on the Arras memorial. On the opening day of Operation Michael, 21st March 1918 his battalion was in the front-line trenches around St Leger / Bullecourt where he was reported missing. He joined the 22nd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Scottish) and served in France. Private 47165 George Laws was by trade a painter and decorator from the small market town of Beccles, Suffolk.