Anne Van Der Linden

This story is a little different to some you will have read about, but it is a true dear story and I would like to tell it.

In Holland, after the war ended, the children were so under-nourished that the Dutch and English Governments arranged to send groups of Dutch children, accompanied by a senior girl, over to England to be able to have some of our food, as, during the time of the occupation they had very little to eat, and were in a very sorry state.

I was only 8 years of age when I met Anne van der Linden, one of the senior girls, in charge of a party of children They were all billeted in "Horsa Huts", specially built for them, near to where I lived in South Yorkshire, and every evening, myself and another girlfriend used to go and talk with them, as best we could, either by sign language or they would speak in broken English to us, and over the next few weeks, we made friends with a lot of them, especially Anne. On one occasion my parents asked me to bring two or three of them back to my home for tea, and from then on they would come to see us often, sometimes, in the evenings, gathering round the piano to have a sing-song. I would look outside our front room window, and see, gathered round my parents gateway, groups of English children, all watching us, as it was so unusual to see any Dutch person here. Anne and her friends would tell us of horrific things which happened to so many Dutch people, during the war - Anne, herself, nearly being shot by two German soldiers, on their retreat from Arnhem. She apparently was seen by them, looking at them out of her window, which was not allowed - and meant she could be spying! They ran into the house and caught her with the intention of killing her, when two British soldiers were seen, through her window, and the Germans ran away, being caught soon afterwards by the same British soldiers. She related how her brothers and sisters helped to save the lives of English soldiers by hiding them wherever they could. (One of the sisters was decorated by Prince Bernhard for her part in the resistance).

Anne went back to Eindhoven a few weeks after we had met, but kept in touch with my family and myself, sending me little Dutch gifts, as best she could. I haven't mentioned that Anne, of course, is 22 years older than myself, and after sometime, she wrote to say she was getting married. The years grew and gradually we lost touch with one another. I married and had children, and then out of the blue, in l968, the opportunity came for my husband, girls and myself to have our first trip abroad! Where should we go? I said it would be good to go to Holland, and try and find Anne again, who, by this time, had moved home after marrying. I wrote to the Dutch Embassy, to ask if they could help in tracing the whereabouts of Anne. They passed the letter on to the VVV (Dutch Information Office), and the next thing I knew was a letter arriving to say they had contacted her and she would be writing. What a wonderful day that was! - and Anne did write, and after a space of 23 years, we went to see her and all her brave family; the first words she uttered on our first visit was "little Maureen Bradshaw"! To this day we go over and stay, but as she is now 90 years of age, we stay with her daughter. The welcome we get when we go there is always joyous and thankful, with a lot of love from everyone, for what the English did to help the Dutch people in their hour of need, and a meeting which happened, so long ago, between a British schoolchild, and a Dutch girl, turned out to have a happy ending, inspite of the troubles of war!

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