Christopher Tennant of Cadoxton House, Neath, was sadly killed in action while serving with the Welsh Guards on the Western Front in 1917. His younger brother Henry joined the Welsh Guards after leaving university in the 1930s. He later recorded:
‘I was captured on 25 May 1940 in a street in OUTREAU, a suburb of BOULOGNE. I was in a party of four officers and about 40 men, under command of Capt. J.H.V. Higgon, Welsh Guards. We were in three houses, which we held for three days. On the morning of 25 May Capt. Higgon ordered all personnel to take cover in the cellars of the house in which I was. The enemy were about to throw hand grenades into the cellar when Capt. Higgon decided that further resistance was useless. We were an independent force at the time, Bn H.Q. having returned to ENGLAND during the night of 22-23 May.’
He was a POW until 1942 when he escaped back to Britain via Spain. He was parachuted behind German lines in 1944 to help the Maquis (he spoke good French). A remarkable man who ended his life as a monk. I’m researching him and I’ll be writing it up…
Bernard Lewis (Author) 