In 2015/16, 12 French students at the Lycée Léopold Senghor high school in Évreux, Normandy, worked alongside history and geography teacher Lucien Grillet to translate Albert Figg’s autobiography into French.
Lucien Grillet explained: “I had met Tenno Dogger, Ian Patrick and British veterans Eric Rackham and Edwin Jeffery from the Deep Respect Association near Omaha Beach in July 2014.
“Two years later, after several successful school projects together, Mr Dogger suggested students from the school should take part in translating the book Albert Figg had just published: The Ups and Downs of a Gunner, My Life Story, into French.
“Mr Figg himself wished the memory of Hill 112 to be passed on to the younger generation and so I gratefully accepted the challenge and a team of students volunteered. Fabienne Le Nagard, an English teacher who had already done a school project with Albert, also took part, along with a student at her school in Argentan.”
The students and their teachers had just six months in which to do the job as Albert wanted to present both the English and French versions of the book in Normandy in June 2016. Lucien added: “One of the most difficult aspects of the translation concerned the military vocabulary and the translation of the spoken English Albert had used in his book – but they loved getting to grips with the challenge.”
He went on: “They worked on the translation outside school and we talked over their work between lessons. One pupil, Esther, drew a map of Albert’s journey through Normandy.” (see https://lgrillet.wixsite.com/histoire-memoires/albert-figg)
Thanks to the hard work of those involved, the book was available in time to be presented at book festivals over the summer. Two of the students met Albert and officially handed their work over to him. Sadly, Albert died a couple of weeks later.
“In my school, taking part in the translation of the book opened new educational perspectives. Students at the school are still impressed by the fact that former students achieved such a task,” Lucien said.
In July 2020, the school was set another challenge when Hill 112 Memorial Foundation chairman Annette Oliver suggested students could add French subtitles to the documentary film about the battle over Hill 112 made by committee member Peter Williams.
“Fifteen students and former students volunteered and did their best despite Covid-19, working from home,” Lucien recalled. “They were so glad to be helpful and contribute to the continuation of that small but precious Anglo-French partnership.”
Meanwhile, since 2016, other school groups from Senghor High School have had the opportunity to discover the site as part of a Shared History, Shared Memories teaching initiative set up in 2014.
“School groups are invited to see how different layers of history have accumulated on this site over time. There they can see the landmarks from the Roman and medieval periods, as well as the monuments commemorating the battle on Hill 112 in the summer of 1944,” explained Lucien.
“They can also see the Wessex monument built just after the war, the monument dedicated to civilian victims of the battle, built by Association Odon-cote 112, and those Albert Figg helped set up from the 1990s onwards: the Churchill tank, the statue of an infantryman, the planting of 112 trees and a 25-pounder gun.
“The site is amazing, and perfect for school outings. It is a historical site as well as a site of remembrance. It allows students to understand issues of the Battle of Normandy they often know little about.
“The monuments, the Churchill tank, the 25-pounder gun and the statue of a British infantryman allow students to have an overall view of the battle from a British point of view. The monument dedicated to civilians allows visitors to grasp some of the consequences of the war for the local population, the fierce defence of the site by the German troops and the choice made by the military commanders at the time.
“Undoubtedly the story of the battle is saved from oblivion, as an outing with students from Évreux in October 2020 highlighted. On that day, students worked in small groups to discover the site and interviewed the President and Vice-President of the French Association Odon-cote 112, MM Gilles Osmont and Vincent Dussutour (see https://lgrillet.wixsite.com/share-history/2020-2021).
“Sharing Albert’s memory and talking about his endeavours is now one of the cornerstones of the school project. I hope he would be pleased to see it continue, notably with the publication of a collection of accounts by WW2 eyewitnesses and through students presenting both that book and Albert’s own at book fairs and in the local media.”
For more about Shared History, Shared Memories, see https://lgrillet.wixsite.com/share-history
The collection of WW2 accounts collected by students from Senghor High School and Lucien Grillet, I was there. 15 Eye-Witness Accounts from the Second Word War is available in the UK from Waterstones. See https://www.waterstones.com/book/i-was-there/lucien-grillet/students-from-senghor-high-school-of-evreux/9782815105583)
