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1252)	Geoff Whiley
Location: Dursley

Tuesday, 5 May 2015 00:12

I've just been listening to a programme "There's More Here Than I Thought" on BBC Radio 4 Extra, available online to early June. It's about the artist and social reformer Winifred Gill; I think it was made in 2009.

Presenter Kate Mosse and Dr Christopher Fletcher of the Bodleian Library, Oxford inspect some of Gill's papers. Around 25:29 the discussion moves on to her Second World War internee relations work and he says (I think I hear correctly):

"[Reading] Notes on the visit of the Bishop of Bristol to the Refugee Institute at [brief pause] Dursley on Monday November 4th 1946. [To Mosse] Has anyone else ever recorded that? Probably not."

Through Google I've found only a passing reference in an Exeter PhD thesis (N Burkitt) to 'another refugee from Dursley, sixteen year old Klaere Loeb' but nothing as 'grand' as an Institute. That and the fact that Bristol, if the wrong diocese for Dursley is at least next door suggest to me that I heard correctly.

Does anyone please know any more?

Andy Barton Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:00
Hello Geoff

Thanks for that, an interesting observation - you did hear it correctly.

The Dursley Institution was what was once Dursley Union Workhouse, in Union Street, built in 1834 and demolished in the 1950s.

At the start of WW2, many refugees were moved to Dursley from Bristol and the southern part of Gloucestershire as they were deemed â€œalien protected areasâ€. In June 1940 there were 120 German and Austrian refugees in residence at the Institution and it was run as a hostel. As â€œCategory Câ€ aliens they were all exempted from internment â€“ for the most part they had all been victims of Nazi persecution. To make way for them, Dursley was given 24 hours to evacuate all patients and inmates from the Institution.

The refugees ran the hostel mostly themselves but Miss Winifred Gill organised many leisure time occupations including classes in history, geology, shorthand, musical appreciation, folk dancing and English conversation. The refugees also did knitting for the Red Cross and made toys for child air raid victims.

The Bishop of Bristol may have been the Roman Catholic Bishop as Dursley is in the Clifton (Bristol) diocese. Equally it could have been the C. of E. Bishop of Bristol as the refugees were all moved out from Bristol in the first place.

The refugees were all very appreciative of the assistance they received while in Dursley.

I hope that helps.

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