BLIGH, H.K.H Lieutenant

Hubert Kenneth Henry –  92415 (R.E.)

I am so thrilled to be hearing from both English and Italian relatives who are finding that my little project is both interesting and informative. Recently I was contacted by a Patrick Bligh who had also been researching his father Lt. H.K.H. Bligh who had also been a Prisoner of War in PG 49 at Fontanellato.

“I have just discovered your website, it’s fascinating! My father Lt HKH Bligh RE was a prisoner in PG 49. My parents divorced when I was a small boy and then he died and I never had the opportunity of discussing with him his war history. Over the last few years I have carried out research and discovered he was in PG 49 and I have become involved with the MSMT trust. My father is mentioned in Tom Carver’s book ” Where the hell have you been?” as he was in the initial group that left PG 49 with Carver. My father headed south and in May 1944 reached allied lines. I have little information about his route. My aunt provided a brief account prepared by my father that is now on the MSMT site.”

As you can imagine I responded immediately….

“Hi Patrick,

How great! I know when I first thought about creating this website it was really to try and see if I could collate all the information I was slowly starting to gather into one succinct little Treasure Trove that I could pop into and add things every now and then. But I’m now starting to get a great thrill from knowing that it is something that others find interesting and hopefully helpful too.

I too am so sad that I never talked to my Dad about this stuff but I’m now really excited to see if I can: 1) provide a full Roll Call of everyone who walked through that barbed wire in September 1943; and 2) possibly find any of the Italian families who helped my Dad, and his pals and other inmates, after the escape into the Italian countryside.”

And it didn’t take long to hunt down the “brief account” of his father’s story that his Aunt had submitted to the Monte San Martino Trust (M.S.M.T.). A quick search for Bligh on the Trust’s fantastic search engine and hey presto….

Click Search and away you go!

But it appears that Patrick too sadly knew nothing of his father’s war time exploits “nor any details of his escape route or arrival at allied lines” as he explained when reaching out to me. However, it sounds as though he has made huge progress, largely with the help of the M.S.M.T. and with, as I have experienced, their most helpful staff:-

“The discovery that my father was in PG49 is complicated!  I read Ian English’s obituary in The Times and this resulted in me buying his book Home By Christmas and, to my amazement, I saw my father’s name in the roll call in the back of the book [as is your father’s]as a prisoner in PG49. This led me to discovering the MSMT and through them I spoke to Keith Kilby and I then attended an MSMT lunch which led to me being on their mailing list and receiving their newsletters.

I went with my brother on the MSMT trip to Fontanellato in 2013 and stayed in an agriturismo with some of the officers of MSMT-Nick Young, Christine English and John Simkins. They were good fun and very committed to the charity. It was a great trip. There were over 100 attendees and the Italians were generous and welcoming hosts.”

And so I am able to confirm yet another POW who was in exactly the same place as my Dad in September 1943, and I’ve now got a living relative who no doubt shares the same feelings as I do about this incredible generation. And how wonderful to read this one excerpt from Kenneth Bligh’s submission that provides a very real sense of what each one of these men must have been feeling on that Autumn morning in 1943….

“It is hard to explain one’s reactions, walking through the wire, free and yet not free, that feeling of un-certainty, wondering what to do for the best, what the future is going to bring; whether to change into civilian clothes, if so would we be shot as spies, should we go north or south. (An) Immediate decision is the only thing in such a predicament and hope for the best.”

I close by saying to Patrick:-

“I’m so grateful to you for making contact as I think all of us must feel the same about this extraordinary period in our fathers’ lives. Especially as quite a lot of them seemed to not want to talk about it. Yet I have a tremendous sense of pride in how intrepid they all were, not just being prepared to go to war but also the fortitude to try and make their way home through enemy territory and in a very foreign land.”

I’m hoping that Patrick and I will continue to correspond, if only to see if we can add more pieces to this extraordinary jigsaw puzzle we both endeavour to complete. And perhaps we might even meet up in Fontanellato one day to celebrate the contribution that was made to making our lifetimes as peaceful and fulfilling as any might have experienced. We both think that an 85^th Anniversary Celebration in Fontanellato in 2028 should be the next goal. As Patrick puts it:-

“I fear that if the next organised trip is not until 2033 there will not be many children of prisoners around to attend!”

Hang in there Patrick…. hang in there! Let’s do this!