Tag / update

by chvarchive

Some correspondence from Christina Szápáry

In March, Christina Szápáry, the niece of the Countess Gabrielle Szápáry, who played an important role in helping to organise and secure funding for the camps, got in contact. She had seen Philip Seddon’s account of a visit he made on behalf of CHV to Vienna in 1969, during which he met the Countess. His notes observed the extraordinary commitment she showed to the work of CHV, which seems to have come about through her links with Caritas in Austria or some personal connections.

Below is the correspondence that followed. Continue reading →

by chvarchive

November 2018 update

By Peter Watson

Each camp wrote up a report of activities which was used to inform those who had supported a particular camp and to encourage future donors. Few of these reports have survived, perhaps because they were written before the digital age and reproduced by banda machine. One that did survive is copied in the Camps section of the website. If there are any other surviving reports it would be good to post them as well.

The website was set up about 3 years ago and with some welcome exceptions has covered the camps in the 1960’s and early 70’s. Many of the volunteers are now in their 70’s and too many have already passed on. We have, therefore, decided to draw a line under the memories, We have decided to celebrate the success of the website in two ways:

On Thursday 17th October 2019 we will hold our final reunion at Jesus College at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. It will take the form of a totally informal tea party. More details of this will be announced here early next year.

The second element of the celebration will be the conversion of the website to print. It is intended that the ensuing book will include everything on the site as at the end of March 2019, so if you have any material especially pictures, please let us have it by the due date and we will include it in the book.

by chvarchive

October 2016 update

By Peter Watson

In the months since the last update we have passed an exciting milestone – more than 500 people have now visited this website, from as far afield as the US, Canada and Brazil, across Europe and of course the UK. A clear pattern is emerging of spikes in readership after articles appearing in alumni magazines. While we have been working to alert college magazines to our project, some colleges will only run articles if they are submitted by former members of that college – so if you are in touch with any friends from colleges we haven’t yet managed to alert, do please let them know in case they are willing to assist. Five hundred is a great number but there may be many hundreds more who haven’t yet heard about the archive, and who may wish to contribute, or just to enjoy reading about it. Spread the word!

Over the summer we received two responses to the Homertonian magazine letter, from Barbara Curry (nee Kay) and Jane Bramhill,  who took part in different camps in the 70s. Their contributions can be read here and here. More recently, Angus Tulloch (Clare) got in touch with memories of camps he attended in Austria and near Leeds, and fundraising.

Gordon Edwards and I have both sent round-robin emails to lists of contacts gathered through this project. If you would like to receive an occasional message to keep up with the project then please email via this link with your details.

by chvarchive

August 2016 update

Homerton College’s alumni magazine, the Homertonian, published a letter about CHV in July. The original material submitted to the magazine is also shown here. It was expected that it would be edited but the original material contains some interesting points and some new descriptive material about the camps, so I include for your interest.

We have also seen some comments from former campers (the links are here and here), and from Peggy Heap, who fostered a child from Hungary via Vienna.

Reviewing the material published on the website to date, there appear to be two broad themes. Continue reading →

by chvarchive

May 2016 update

By Peter Watson

Since our last update, posts have appeared in various college e-newsletters and on the Cambridge University Alumni Facebook page (scroll down to item dated 14 March)

A piece has also been submitted to the university’s forthcoming ‘Alumni Stories’ website – we will share details of where to find this when we have them.

With Gordon Edwards, I wrote a piece that has now been published in ‘The Jesuan’, Jesus College’s alumni publication, which can be read here (pdf) (scroll down to page 12).

It has been lovely to hear from some old friends and others with memories of the CHV camps. As we continue to spread the word please do share this site with any connections who may also have memories from the time.

by chvarchive

February 2016 update

Our search for memories and photographs of CHV was first publicised in the Clare College    e-newsletter in late January. It brought an immediate response from Clare graduates who had been on various CHV camps in different countries. A list is given below. If you know any of them, if you want to get in touch with them, if you have memories and photographs of the camps they mention or if you want to get involved in this project, please get in touch by email and we will pass on your message as appropriate.

The initial response to our first request has been very promising. There is obviously an interest out there which we must tap into. Hopefully, we will hear soon from the other colleges we have approached.

The names of Clare graduates who responded are:

  • John Grundy, Austrian camps mid 60s
  • Andrew Reekie, Austrian camps 1962
  • Chris Constantine, German camps 1971
  • Joe Pillman, UK camps early 70s
  • Bruce Huett, Austrian camps 1967