WW2 Veteran Visits Northwood College

We were so privileged to host Mr Stanley Ellis and his partner, Iris, at a talk and presentation to Key Stage Two girls this week. He was kindly introduced to us via Dr Ruparelia.

Aged 94, he remembered being in the Boy Scouts carrying messages when the communication lines went down in 1939. He then joined the Home Guard at 17 and at 18 joined the Royal Fusiliers. He remembersbeing part of the invasion force that was first sent to North Africa and then was part of the American force that invaded Italy.

On reaching Rome, he was taken prisoner by the Germans and transported over the Brenner Pass to a camp near Munich. There he was forced to work on the roads and in a pig farm for the Germans. When victory was declared, in May 1945, he was back in England having been released by the Americans in their push to Berlin.

Iris told of her schooling at St Joan of Ark in Rickmansworth, how she remembers having lessons in the cellars if the air raid siren went off and how she once wore her gas mask. She remembered how she was booked to be transported to safety in America as a child evacuee, but after the Germans torpedoed the children’s ships and many lost their lives, her parents cancelled her ticket and told her that she was better to take her chances in England.

They both gave us fascinating first-hand accounts of the 2nd World War and made history really come to life for the girls.

Thank you so much to them both for coming and to Dr Ruparelia for introducing them to us.

Mrs K Delaney