Family history and the two world wars

It’s been a privilege and an incredible learning experience to research and write about our family’s lives in both the First and the Second World War. Our opa, Gerrit den Hartog, was a gardener-turned-soldier when the Netherlands was invaded in 1940; his story and that of his family is told in The Occupied Garden. Our great uncle, Joe Deverill, was a teenage sailor in the First World War, one of just ten to survive his ship’s sinking in 1917; his story, and that of the wider family, is told in The Cowkeeper’s Wish. My husband’s grandfather, Stanley Pringle, served in both wars. When my husband was little, and eager to hear war stories, he told him simply, “It’s an awful thing to have to kill another human being.”

Gerrit den HartogJoe Deverill, WW1Stanley Pringle, WW1Below, from the Dutch side, our oma and opa’s identity cards from WW2; and from the English side, our grandmother Doris Deverill’s passport photo — she came to Canada as an orphan right after WW1.