Church Notre-Dame de Calais/Our Lady of Calais revisited: courtesy of Philip Emerson

Here are some links to Notre-Dame de Calais the prospective twinning partner for Saint Mary's Church in the Lace Market, Nottingham.

Notre-Dame de Calais is the only church on the Continent built in the English Perpendicular style. This period came to an end in Calais in 1558 when François Duc de Guise recaptured the town, causing Mary Tudor of England to famously utter "When I am dead and opened, you shall find Calais engraved on my heart." See this and other quotes on Calais.

The escape of the West family from Calais aboard HMS Venomous on the 21 May 1940

Sidney West, a distant relative of Pierre Ratcliffe, also left Calais that day aboard a Royal Navy destroyer, possibly HMS Venomous. He and his elder brother, Robert, were born in Calais the sons of Frederick West, a staff Sergeant in the Royal Engineers, from Gillingham in Kent. In 1918 Frederick married Marguerite Louise Prudhomme, a bank clerk in Calais, and left the army to work as a maintenance engineer at Brampton Brothers. Sidney describes the family's escape to England and their mixed fortunes on arrival in England. They never returned to France.... Read... More on HMS Venomous

Perfume from Provence. Another Riviera secret uncovered - Author, Lady Winifred Fortescue

This site has developed from a love of Lady Winifred Fortescue's books, France, and in particular, Provence and the Alpes-Maritimes. At the height of their popularity, in the 1930's - 40's, her books sold many thousands of copies making Winifred Fortescue a best selling author and bringing overnight fame. Concerned that interest in her books and her amazing life might fade with the passage of time, it was a delight to find that when Black Swan re-published some of the books in the 1990's they became best sellers once again. Perfume from Provence was serialized for BBC Radio 4 and released on a BBC audio cassette tape in the 1990's. The reader was the well known British actress Stephanie Cole. Winifred Fortescue was a woman ahead of her time who, faced with various forms of adversity, would turn her hand to anything, make a go of it and generally succeed - usually but not always with a touch of laughter. I hope the web site will help to keep her work alive and allow you to enjoy some of the locations and personalities that Winifred knew and, in addition, introduce new generations to the delights of Perfume from Provence... Read...

> More on Lady Fortescue

Maureen Emerson tells the moving story of Hélène Vagliano

Hélène Vagliano : Née le 3 juillet 1909 à Paris (16e, 75). Fille de Marino Vagliano et de Danaë. Elle est issue d'un milieu privilégié. Lorsque la guerre éclate en septembre 1939, Hélène rejoint les associations caritatives. Avec sa mère, elle rejoint la cantine militaire de la gare de Cannes. La famille Vagliano reste à Cannes malgré la défaite française en juin 1940. Hélène devient l'organisatrice locale de la Maison du prisonnier (aide et soutien aux familles des soldats décédés et des prisonniers de guerre français). En 1943, elle est attachée au service de renseignements du Général de Gaulle, le Bureau central de renseignements et d'action (BCRA) et fait partie du réseau Tartane-Masséna. Son pseudonyme est « veilleuse ». Le 29 juillet 1944 à 11 heures 30, Hélène se trouve au « centre d'entr'aide pour les familles et pour les enfants de prisonniers » situé rue Teissere à Cannes. Elle est arrêtée par cinq agents de la Gestapo, membres de la Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchevisme (LVF), commandés par un officier allemand. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur à titre posthume, Médaillée de la Résistance, Croix de Guerre avec palme. Le 15 août dans l’après-midi, à Cannes, les anciens combattants se retrouvent à l'église Russe Saint-Michel Archange, située Boulevard Alexandre III, pour rendre hommage à Hélène Vagliano. Présente sur une plaque commémorative dans l'école Saint-Georges d'Ascot. Il existe une école et une rue Hélène Vagliano à Cannes.... Read...

Histoire d'Hélène Vagliano en français
More on Hélène Vagliano
Les fusillés de l'Ariane 22 July and 15 August 1944

Maureen Emerson writes about the history of Franco British friendship in the French riviera

Maureen Emerson, from an Irish-Austrian background, grew up in London - for which she is eternally grateful. She brought up her family in North Africa, Lebanon, Dallas and Singapore, before settling in Provence for twenty-two years. There she worked as a local co-ordinator for CBS and NBC at media festivals in Cannes. During her years in Provence Maureen became enthralled with the stories of those expatriates who lived on the Riviera in the 1920s and 1930s and how the Second World War affected their lives. Her second book on the subject is now in progress. While still harbouring a strong affection for Provence, Maureen has now settled in Sussex with her husband.

Here is a sample of here book 

If you like it,  "Escape to Provence", is published by Chapter & Verse Books; it is also available in Kindle format... Read...

More about Maureen Emerson

La longue histoire de l'amitié franco-britannique

forum pour toutes les personnes qui s'intéressent à l'histoire de l'implication britannique dans le nord de la France au cours des 19e et 20e siècles. Il sera d'un intérêt particulier pour les descendants français et britanniques de soldats qui sont restés dans le nord de la France après la première et la deuxièeme guerre mondiales. Il sera également d'intérêt pour les descendants français et britanniques d'individus qui sont venus de Grande-Bretagne dans le nord de la France, pour diverses raisons économiques, en particulier le transfert de savoir faire lié aux chemins de fer, aux mines et à la fabrication de textiles, et non des moindres, les dentelles mécaniques, pour lesquelles Calais est devenu mondialement célèbre. Ce site sera aussi d'intérêt pour les descendants français et britanniques des familles qui, en Mai et Juin 1940 se réfugièrent en Angleterre, des hommes qui furent arrêtés et déportés en Allemagne nazie parce qu'ils n'avaient pas quitté la France et de leurs épouses qui furent soumises à des contrôles humiliants des autorités allemandes. J'ai moi-même un intérêt personnel à ce qui est un petit-fils d'immigrants anglais qui ont vécu en France depuis 1889.... Suite...

The Ratcliffe family's escape from Calais to England on HMS Venomous, 21 May 1940

Pierre Ratcliffe was only five years old when he left Calais on HMS Venomous with his parents, Albert and Renée Ratcliffe, his sixteen year old half-sister, Gisèle, and their young cousin, Jack Ratcliffe. Albert was born in Calais in 1891; he was the son of a colliery engineer from Doncaster who came to France with his company in 1889. Albert was one of eight children and served in the British Army with the Machine Gun Corps during the First World War. He worked in Calais for an American company exporting lace. Albert's first wife died of tuberculosis leaving eight year old Gisèle without a Mother. Renée's parents had emigrated to America and she was born there in 1911, but they returned to France in 1933 during the Great Depression and she married Albert in 1934. The family had British passports... More...