Caitlin DeAngelis’ book The Caretakers, published last year, tells the stories of three anglophones who risked their lives to help Allied soldiers in Nazi-occupied France.
The other thing they had in common? All three worked for or had connections to the Imperial War Graves Commission, established in 1917 to mark, record and maintain the graves of British and Imperial soldiers who died in World War One.
When war swept through Europe again in 1940, more than 200 of these gardeners were stranded in Nazi-occupied France, explicitly ordered to remain at their posts.
Ben Leech was the cemetery gardener in Beaumont-Hamel (Somme), Rosine Witton, a British gardener’s wife, was a key figure in major escape network The Comet Line; and Irish gardener Robert Armstrong ultimately died at the hands of the Nazis.
They, like hundreds of other gardeners, scattered in ones and twos across France, worked for the Resistance from the earliest days of the war. They used their English-language skills to hide British and American airmen from the Germans and help them escape, often with little or no thought for their personal wellbeing.
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Ms DeAngelis said by 1942 many of them knew how dangerous their activities were.
Caitlin DeAngelis' new book, The Caretakers, uncovers the bravery of the grave gardeners during World War TwoCaitlin DeAngelis
“The only reason Rosine Witton was not arrested [in 1943] was that she was on a train to Bordeaux with some airmen when the hammer came down,” she said.
“As soon as she got to the station in Paris, someone grabbed her by the arm and said: ‘Get right back on that train and do not go back to your house, because the Nazis are in your house right now.’ So she just got right back on the train and left with nothing.”
Ms DeAngelis, 41, who trained as a historian of the 17th and 18th Centuries, became interested in the war grave gardeners in 2018 during the centenary commemorations for the end of World War One.
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While visiting Vimy Ridge (Pas-de-Calais), she started thinking about the cemeteries created after the conflict and the gardeners who tended them.
“I went into the War Graves archives to poke around a little bit to see what I could find. I was really fascinated by this group of gardeners who had all served in World War One, and then found themselves in Occupied France.
“Many were married to French women, so for these people who live in that northern part of France, there's a lot of continuity, these experiences are really tied to one another.”
Hundreds of people tended the war grave cemeteries throughout the country, but one of the reasons she focused on the trio in The Caretakers was the surviving documents.
“Of the 500-odd gardeners who worked for the War Graves Commission in 1940, almost all of their personnel files were destroyed by the commission after their deaths,” Ms DeAngelis said.
“Ben [Leech] and Robert [Armstrong] had left behind this huge trove of documents to work with, which was wonderful, especially for me as an 18th-Century person. I'm used to writing all about people from a tiny, tiny little snippet.”
Both men’s activities were also documented in the American National Archives: “They’re all substantiated by the American military who did interviews with the people they saved.”
Working on the book had a profound impact on Ms DeAngelis.
The book focuses on the stories of working-class people who were largely overlookedCaitlin DeAngelis
“I'm used to writing about 17th Century doctrinal disputes between different factions of Christianity that don't even really exist anymore,” she said.
“This felt a lot more urgent and present. I'm not used to writing about people whose children or grandchildren are still alive, which is its own joy and challenge.”
She is keenly aware that the events of 1939-1945 are quickly passing out of living memory, and feels it is important to tell the stories of working-class people who were largely overlooked, particularly Robert and Ben.
While Rosine Witton was showered with decorations, from the American Congressional Medal of Freedom to the Légion d'honneur, the same cannot be said for the men.
The British and Irish governments squabbled over who should repay money sent to Robert Armstrong during the Occupation.
His friends in Valenciennes (Nord) raised 10,000 francs for a memorial in the Lausanne cemetery where he worked, but were appalled by the War Graves Commission’s insistence on a blandly worded plaque that made no reference to the cruel treatment he endured in Nazi captivity.
Although the book is rooted in the past, Ms DeAngelis cannot help but see echoes of it in the present day. “On the one hand, I would say that it made me hopeful about sort of the resolve of common people to do brave things,” she said.
“But on the other hand, all of these people were caught up in forces that were so much bigger than themselves. These people didn't help win the war. That's not what this book is about.
“They are ordinary people who did what they could do within their very small scope of influence. Because no one person can fix things. You can't save the world, you can't actually help win the war, but you can do something meaningful. These people really did save lives.”
