FIRST MINISTER MEETS HIS CZECH MATES

28 Jun 2002 12:01 PM

First Minister Rhodri Morgan will be reliving some of his earliest childhood memories this weekend when he joins a reunion of wartime refugees from Czechoslovakia who went to school in Wales.

As a small boy growing up in Radyr, Cardiff, Mr Morgan has warm memories of the Süssemilch family who came to live on Heol Isaf, the main road through the village, opposite the Morgan family, when the future First Minister was four.

"Among my earliest memories is the family who lived opposite and who spent a lot of time in our house. They had lost their father but I remember Bruno who was 12, his sister Herta was 16 or 17. Their mother was a big bustling woman, I can still see her filling our little kitchen," he said. "The family moved to Radyr from Abernant because Bruno and his sister wanted to learn English, rather than continuing their education in Czech. Mr Morgan first heard about the reunion at the Abernant Lake Hotel, Llanwrtyd Wells through Czech ambassador Pavel Seifter, himself a former pupil at the school established in the hotel during the Second World War.

"I met the ambassador about a year ago and I mentioned my family link with wartime refugees from the Czech Republic. He mentioned then he was one of them and that this reunion was going to take place and that they were trying to track down everyone who had attended the school."

Mr Morgan last heard news of his former neighbour back in 1947 when the Süssemilchs had returned home to the Czech town of Kladno and wrote a letter to the Morgan family.

"I remember being struck with horror that my friend Bruno, by then 16 years old was already working from 6am to 10pm at the local steelworks.

"If he’s still alive he would be over 70 now, and if he was working 16 hour shifts in the steelworks at Kladno, then it may be that he did not make it to his eighth decade. My brother also remembers Bruno even at 12 or 13 dreaming of going to Australia when the war was over. Perhaps that is where he is. I’m certainly hoping that someone at the reunion will remember Bruno."

The reunion is being organised by Lady Grenfell-Baines, and former pupils of the Abernant Lake School are expected from 11 countries, including as far away as Australia.

Notes:

 During the Second World War the Czechoslovak Government in Exile established primary and secondary schools for refugee children. The school began in Camberley before moving to Whitchurch and then to the Abernant Lake Hotel, Llanwrtyd Wells.

 The most famous alumni of the school is Karel Reisz, director of the archetypal 60’s ‘kitchen sink’ film Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, which starred Albert Finney and Llanelli’s Rachel Roberts.

 There have been three previous re-unions. Organisers expect this will be the last one, due to the advancing years of those taking part. However, they said that last time too.

(28 June, 2002)