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Memory Betty & Henri de Mauduit As friends of my parents, Betty and Henry de Mauduit have been guests in my home, and I have been privileged on two occasions to be their guest at Bourblanc. I treasure letters, film, and photographs from our friendship -- including one of Betty walking in the rose garden with Lord Mountbatton and film footage of M. Paul Weill, a prominent French attorney, husband of Leon Blum's daughter Suzanne, and a close friend of Henry's.
It saddens me to see how little of their story remains and how swiftly history forgets. Guilbert Renault, writing under a Resistance pseudonym Colonel Remy, provides the fullest telling of their story in his books LA LIGNE DE DEMARCATION, LA MAISON D'ALPHONSE, and AUTOUR DE LA PLAGE BONAPARTE. Each contains a chapter devoted to the de Mauduits. Much of what I read elsewhere is flawed -- or differs from Henry and Betty's narrative in privacy among friends.
Somewhere I hope there yet exists the guest book from Bourblabc. Betty hastily concealed it behind books in the library on the day of her arrest by the Nazis because it contained the names of Allied aviators who found refuge and safety at Bourblanc, including a number who were present at the time of her arrest. She was proud to learn many years later that none were caught.
According to the de Mauduits, the book remained hidden throughout Bourblanc's occupation by the Germans for the remainder of the war. Heny parachuted into Brittany at the time of D-Day and liberated his own home. That book was a treasure trove of history. Perhaps Henry's nephew, whom I understood was heir to the title and the estate, kept it when the property was sold. Marjorie M. Casey le vendredi 22 juillet 2016 Contribution au livre ouvert de Roberta Betty Laurie épouse de Mauduit | |
