Reunited after 62 Years

As a 1940s vocalist, I happen to meet many interesting people whilst travelling around, and it was one particular person that I found very interesting indeed and have now have become great friends with!

Arthur Jones aged 88, is a World War Two veteran and believe it or not is as sprightly as a man half of his age. He regularly visits schools to teach children about the war and shares his experiences. One of his many hobbies is attending 1940s events where he can relive this very special era in his life.It is not everyday that you meet a veteran and I felt very honoured to meet him. I wanted to know more. It was then that he told me of his amazing story of befriending a young girl in France….

Whilst driving his tank through Liévin, France in 1944, Arthur began to notice that steering was becoming difficult, so decided to pull over. He then noticed that the right hand track on the tank was damaged.

“Me and my friend Ian were told to stay with the tank. The sergeant told us he would send someone out immediately but no-one came. We were there for 3 days. We were desperately hungry and dirty. People brought us little bits but nothing major as they weren’t supposed to help us you see…”

“A young girl named Marie came over to help us, and asked, ‘Would you like to come and stay with us?’ Of course we did, but the family were risking their lives keeping us there!”

Arthur stayed approximately 3-4 weeks with Marie’s family and it was tough saying goodbye, as both Arthur and Ian had become so close to them. Upon leaving, they had decided to find the unit on their own and by this time were very afraid to be charged for desertion, yet nobody had actually come to their rescue!

“As a matter of fact, we never saw the sergeant again, goodness knows what happened to him, but we were given another tank and off we went again”.

It was only when the war ended, and after marrying his dear wife Dot in 1947 (who sadly passed away 10 years ago) that he wanted to find Marie again.

“I had searched and searched for so long to find the family, but unfortunately with no luck whatsoever. It was only when I went to Cosford museum in Shropshire that I met a man named Alan Brown. He was a civil councillor and lived in France, and told me that he had contacts that could help me with my search. I didn’t think there would be any hope; after all it had been almost 60 years prior. He told me to give him any evidence and photographs that I had and he would do his best”.

Arthur was convinced Marie’s family were French, but it came as a surprise to him that a French family under Marie’s did not exist.

“I was really confused at first, but after lots of research Alan had found out that they were Belgian refugees living in France. He had come to find this by looking at the death certificates in Liévin at that time, hoping to find Marie’s father as he had died before I arrived in 1944. With the research that Alan had done, we had found Marie and she was still alive at the age of 93! I couldn’t believe it.”

Arthur has visited Marie 3 times and she has been over to England once. Many newspaper reports in the past have made it out to be a love story when it truly wasn’t. It was just a great friendship that had been lost, so there was a great joy to be reunited.

“We still talk on Skype regularly and I am trying to get her over to see me again… who knows!”