The heroic wartime bravery of a British shopkeeper who hid Allied commandos from the Nazis during WWII has been revealed 40 years after her death.
Ada Le Poidevin was living on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel when she sheltered three British soldiers left behind during a raid on the Nazi-occupied land in 1940.
Despite German troops living next door, she decided to help Corporal Dennis Dumper, Pvt. Fred Drain, and Pvt. Andrew Ross who were stranded without food or shelter.
Ada and her husband Walter offered their garden shed for them to hide in, despite severe consequences if the trio were to be discovered.
All three survived the conflict and they remained close to Ada and Walter, regularly returning to Guernsey to visit them and even attending the couple’s Golden Wedding celebration.
It was the second time Ada had put herself in danger during wartime. During WWI, she spent two years supporting British troops in France working in camps that came under enemy fire—and suffered heavy damage.
Now her story has been pieced together by her niece Liz Walton, using a treasure trove of diaries, photographs, and records she inherited.
“There were huge risks because there were Germans living next door and people were being sent off to concentration camps, said the 79-year-old Walton. “They were terrified of being caught.”
“It must have been absolutely horrendous for people like my aunt, who had been involved in the first World War, and then 20 years later to have the Germans actually in their homes.”
Liz, a retired teacher from Guernsey, turned into a detective to match her aunt’s personal accounts and photos with official wartime records.
She had been fascinated by Ada’s stories since childhood until she died at the age of 88—of ordinary people sacrificing during extraordinary times.
Ada was born in 1895 in Guernsey (30 miles west of the coastline of Normandy, France), and volunteered for the Salvation Army in France in 1917, while in her early 20s.
“There were no men in our family that could go and fight,” Liz said. “She felt a calling to go.”
Ada spent two years in British camps, providing refreshments to soldiers, writing letters for them, and mending their clothes—at sites being fired upon more than once.
For four years after the war, she helped bereaved families travel to France to visit the graves of loved ones killed during the conflict.
Liz says many of the graves were simple wooden crosses placed here and there “because they hadn’t started making proper cemeteries yet”.
“She took them through Arras, where everything had been blown up and completely destroyed.
“I went there in the 1970s and showed her some pictures of it and she burst in to tears as she never thought she would see it rebuilt.”
When families were unable to make the journey themselves, Ada would visit soldiers’ graves on their behalf, leaving flowers, taking photographs and pressing flowers to send home to their relatives.
“As a person, Ada was immensely kind and caring. She would help anyone in need—and loved having children around even though she had none of her own.
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Reflecting on her aunt’s contribution, Liz said, “I don’t think many people are aware of how many women were directly involved in the First World War and how it changed the role of women in society.
“They nursed the wounded, cooked for the troops, acted as clerks and aided communications. Vast numbers worked in munitions factories giving up their traditional nurturing role to strike back at the enemy.
“The era of the Edwardian-Victorian Lady whose main role was to marry and run a home largely died with the war because so many young men never came home and women had to take their place in the workplace.
“Women became used to earning their own money and being independent so domestic service was no longer an attractive option.
“Women’s war work was life-changing not just for them but for everyone.”
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