Monte San Martino Trust

Month: July 2026

  • Audacious escapes

    Audacious escapes

    Letitia Blake attended the launch of Karen Farrington’ s book, The Great Italian Breakout, which brings stories of resilience and resourcefulness to a wider audience.

  • Isabella Insolvibile, Allied Prisoners of War in Italy, 1940–1943

    Isabella Insolvibile, Allied Prisoners of War in Italy, 1940–1943

    Malcolm Gaskill reviews a book by Isabella Insolvibile that lays bare the shortcomings of the Italian state in its treatment of Allied prisoners of war. Translated by Andrea Hajek (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026) 

  • Chair’s message

    Chair’s message

    In his Chair’s message, Phil Cooke summarises progress in the different spheres of MSMT activity.

  • Inspirational stories

    Inspirational stories

    The Trust is delighted to welcome Laura Terrell onto the board. Here she explains her deep interest in Italy and the Trust, sparked by the stories told her by two uncles who were prisoners of war.

  • Selecting the sources

    Selecting the sources

    Ruth Murphy, a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Cambridge, reports on progress in her research, funded by MSMT, into prisoners of war.

  • Lucrezia Baldassarri: Fermo, le Marche

    During the Second World War my family provided direct assistance to escaped Allied prisoners of war. In particular, my great-grandmother Bianca’s family, made up of six siblings, lived in a small village in the province of Fermo, in the Marche region. After September 8, 1943, when many Allied soldiers managed to escape from prison camps…

  • Luca Maggia: Biella, Piedmont

    My paternal great-grandfather, Francesco Cantone, owned a small farmhouse near Pettinengo, a village in the Biella hills. During the war, he offered shelter to a middle-aged Englishman who was trying to hide from German soldiers. One day, while walking along the path leading to the farmhouse with a bag of bread and vegetables for his…

  • Claudia Martelli: Tagliacozzo, Abruzzo

    My family, named Morelli, is originally from Val de Varri, a small village on the border between Lazio and Abruzzo, where I grew up and where my relatives still live today. The history of Val de Varri is a testament to how ordinary people made a difference in times of great difficulty. When the German occupation…

  • Alma Scarpetta: Montegranaro, le Marche

    My grandmother (born in 1938) often told me how her mother and father (my great-grandparents) helped a British soldier. It was the end of the war, around 1944 or 1945 (having been a child, she never remembered the exact date). She and her family (two sisters, two brothers, and herself) lived in the countryside and…

  • Riccardo Virgili: Monte San Giusto, le Marche

    In our family, the war was never just a story in history books. It crept into our home one night, with tired and frightened faces, and it has never left our memory. My family, along with others in the community, was part of a silent network that made Operation Servigliano possible in May 1944. Partisans…