Gabrielle Ayers

Luigi Gabrielle Ayers

In 1943, following the Armistice in Italy, many Prisoners of War were released by their guards but found themselves fugitives in a country over-run by the Germans. One such prisoner was known in Italy as Luigi. Realising that the Allies were not yet in his part of the country, he decided to walk from Padua in the north to reach the front-line in the south. During the course of his arduous journey through the backwaters of Italy he was hidden and given sanctuary by two Italian farming families. In 1949 he took his fiancee to meet them. Sadly, having survived the war he died in 1959 leaving his Italian friends unaware of his tragic death.