In May this year, descendants of two South African PoWs kept up a family tradition that has been maintained for 80 years by visiting a brave Italian family of helpers.
The PoWs were John Barclay and Clive Luyt, who had been captured at Tobruk and were imprisoned near Tivoli, in Lazio, at PG 54 Fara Sabina, also known as Passo Corese.
When the guards abandoned the camp after the Armistice in September 1943, the men fled to Marcellina and made their way up Monte Gennaro. There they met a large group of villagers hiding from the Germans. John and Clive were shepherded to a safer area on the mountain and for nine months were helped with food, clothing and shelter, until they rejoined the Allies. Prominent among the villagers was the Giosi family.
The two South African families kept in touch and visits in both directions took place, although in time there was just an exchange of Christmas cards.
In 2015, after the death of both John and Clive, John’s son Michael, living in Botswana, came across one of the cards and decided to re-establish contact with Nicola Giosi who had been a boy of 9 at the time. A group visited Marcellina in 2017 and spent a week being feted, feasted and walked up and down steep mountain sides. Still alive and active was Giovanni Giosi who had been16 and clearly remembered John and Clive. Giovanni died in 2019.
In 2021 John’s elder daughter, Linda, and her husband, Patrick Prinsloo, based in the UK, represented the family at the wedding of Laura Giosi, granddaughter of Nicola.
The 12-strong party that visited Marcellina last month consisted mostly of direct descendants, the rest by marriage. They live in South Africa, Botswana, Holland and the UK.
A memorial service and an exchange of gifts, including a plaque presented by the Barclay/Luyt families, took place on May 26th. The key hosts were the sons of Nicola Giosi – Olimpio and Pepe. Because of age, Nicola and his spouse Annita played a smaller part than previously.
Clive Luyt wrote a diary during their stay which was translated by Olimpio as Lo Spirito nel Pero (the Spirit in the Pear Tree).
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