Hungary recalled
17/12/2006
In response to Marika Cseh’s November article on leaving Hungary during the 1956 uprising brought back memories of receiving them in their thousands as they poured into Britain.
I well remember the frantic efforts to provide them with accommodation high on the Cotswolds above Stroud, in the empty landmark known as Rodborough “Fort”.
Through a tremendous effort by Stroud Rotary Club, the local churches and the Stroud youth officer, eight units were made ready for refugees in a week. Gas cookers were collected and donated from as far away as Ross-on-Wye, and several vanloads of furniture, bedding and crockery were given and put in place by willing hands. The electric company, plumbers, carpenters and others worked unthinkable hours, and within a week five double and three single units were ready for occupation.
The only disappointment was that several of the Hungarian families regarded their accommodation as only a staging point for emigration to America. The remainder were quickly offered local work, found permanent accommodation, and within six or eight months Rodborough Fort again stood empty on its promontory above the town.
How many hundreds, indeed thousands of times, was a similar scenario repeated throughout Britain at that memorable time?
Rev Lawrence Squires, Lymington