Page 18 • The HERALD • 25th August 2022 v PROUD TO BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1994 v Professional installers of Fascias, Guttering, Cladding, PVCu Windows & Doors Composite Doors • 10 year labour and product guarantees Repairs, cleaning and advice also available Tel: 023 8086 9715 or 07888 705455 enquiries@aztecfascias.com • Airport & Seaport Specialists • Highly Competitive Fares • Friendly, Reliable Service • Comfortable 6 Seater MPVs • Any Distance - Minimum Fare £10 Before booking your journey please call us for a free quotation 07770 967198 or 023 8194 8754 www.kazcarz.co.uk FLAT ROOFING SPECIALISTS All Roof Repairs Tel: 023 8184 5632 Mobile: 07880 508415 Email: steve@braithwaiteroo ng.co.uk THE FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates A.M.H. Handyman Services Internal & External Painting All aspects of DIY Work • Flat Pack Assembly Power Washing: Driveways, Patios, Paths & Decking Gutter, Fascia Boards & Window Cleaning (Bungalows only) Call or email Andy for a free estimate Tel: 07961 443623 handyandyharding@gmail.com Local and Reliable TALES FROM THE GRAVEYARD OF ALL THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR RONALD HUGH CAMPBELL The British Schindler At the east end of the exterior of All Saint’s Church, Fawley, lays a large at memorial dedicated to the Rt. Honourable Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell. is unobtrusive memorial protects the remains of a truly remarkable gentleman. Sir Ronald was born in London to Sir Francis Alexander Campbell and Dora Edith Campbell on the 29th September 1883. His parents were married in the British Embassy Church in Paris in 1934. He was born into a privileged family and lifestyle, but he embraced the responsibilities that came with it. Sir Ronald married Helen Graham, and she is mentioned on his memorial but actually buried in Lisbon. ey had two children Mary and Robin. Robin born in 1912 became Captain Robin Francis Campbell CBE/DSO. Mary, born in 1909, became Mary Egerton, died in 1939 and is buried in the plot next to her father in the graveyard. Like his father before him, Sir Ronald chose to become a British Diplomat, but his father declined to accept him into the service because he came second in the exam. He came rst in the Foreign O ce entrance exam on his second attempt. Sir Ronald worked his way ‘up the ladder’ until he was posted to Paris in 1934 as a British Minister. He was then posted to Belgrade and then back again to Paris. By this time Sir Ronald had become Ambassador. He was renowned for his linguistic skills, and had become an e ective and discreet diplomat, impeccably dressed, culturally adept, pleasant looking, of average height with brown hair, and highly intelligent. He spoke French like a native. He was instrumental in helping the defeated French to decide to maintain a government in exile. When the Germans had descended on Paris in 1941 he had spent 4 days in the boiler room of the Embassy continually burning o cial papers. He escaped from Paris, not in disguise as a French man, but in a chocolate and yellow-coloured Rolls Royce with the Ambassadorial ag ying on the front of the vehicle and the Embassy ag ying from the roof of In 1941 this modest accomplished diplomat was posted to Lisbon during a critical time in WW2 where he saved +/- 1000 Jews by issuing visas for them to go to Mauritius. Lisbon, along with Madrid and Ankara were ‘neutral’ cities, and Lisbon was considered to be a ‘backwater’, although the city was packed with Nazi and Allied spies. It was here that he became a secret British ‘Oskar Schindler’. British passport o cers in the neutral cities were instructed by the Foreign O ce to obtain transit or entrance visa’s so that Rabbi’s and their families could leave Nazi territory, and Portugal was quick to respond to this request. Sir Ronald personally wrote out the visa’s for every one of the escaping Jews. His sta o ered to help but he refused because if there was ‘a problem’ he did not want them to be blamed or su er. Once the documents had been issued, Britain could use neutral diplomats in Switzerland, Sweden or the Vatican, or the Red Cross, to get the papers to the named Jews in German Occupied countries. By December 1943, Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi reported to his Religious Emergency Council in London, that Jews in Nazi Europe were receiving Portuguese entrance visa. e Foreign Secretary at that time was Sir Anthony Eden, praising Campbell calling it an outstanding operation. ese documents had saved Jews from deportation to the death camps. Obviously the Jews were NOT going to Mauritius as stated, but the the car. Sir Ronald hoped that the German respect for pomp and o cialdom would enable them to pass through the many checkpoints unchallenged. He was driven to south of Bordeaux to St Jean de Lutz without a problem, where he was picked up by a shing vessel which took him to the British destroyer H.M.S Galatea on which he returned to England. by Patricia Hedley-Goddard, Churchyard Archivist for the ancient parish church of All Saint’s Fawley Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell Continued on page 19
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