Rog Stanton
Mildred Schutz, who died On December 24th, 2025, aged 102 was a long-standing and loyal member of the Escape Lines Memorial Society (ELMS) who attended its events in York, London, Brussels, the Pyrenees and Italy. She was an excellent ambassador for ELMS with her numerous contacts and organisations. She was also a member of MSMT, the sister organisation of ELMS.
Mildred Buck grew up on the family farm in Walton-on-Thames, Kent, where she enjoyed the freedom and independence that it afforded her. Later the family moved house to Stansted, then Hersham and, on leaving school, Mildred attended Business College and then, in the early years of WW2, she began work for a shipping company and also trained as a volunteer Red Cross nurse. During a government “essential services recruitment” interview at work Mildred was asked whether she would consider changing her job to assist the war effort, for example in nursing (as she had experience of Red Cross work) or join the Inter-services Research Bureau. The latter sounded rather interesting, so she opted for that.
After three interviews consisting of searching and, apparently, meaningless questions, Mildred passed the requirements, and found herself working at 64 Baker Street, London, SOE Headquarters, and signing the Official Secrets Act! Initially the work was clerical, filtering information from intelligence and disseminating that information to the appropriate agencies. As her work progressed she realised that it was related to Resistance movements over Europe and the Far East.Then came the day when Mildred was asked if she would like to go overseas – and whether she would mind jumping in with a parachute, which sounded like fun.
At this point Mildred found herself in uniform, recruited into the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (PRVC), also known as The Women’s Transport Service, with the rank of Ensign. There then followed a period of rigorous training in a cohort of two hundred other young women, after which only ten of them passed. The parachute training never materialised as the time scale was too short and the recruits were due overseas, so the plan was to finish the training when they got to their destination. The group of ten had a short embarkation leave then, after a long ride in the back of a wagon, arrived expectantly at Liverpool docks, still unsure of where they were going. However, the best laid plans…apparently, FANY rules decreed that their operatives had to be over 171/2 years old to go abroad and most of the group were not (Mildred was one of the older girls, about 18 at the time). However, this was solved, and they eventually set sail.
Posted to Italy
The journey took ten days, enduring rough seas and dodging U-boats, during which time their destination – Italy – was disclosed, and Mildred and others suffered from violent sea-sickness. They arrived in Naples in the Autumn of 1944 and the cohort was split up with Mildred and her friend going to the headquarters of 1 Special Force at Monopoly and Bari.
At this stage, Italy had capitulated and joined the Allies on the 8th September 1943, and at the same time many escapers from PoW camps were on the run. The Germans had swarmed down from the north and the Allies were moving up from the south. Italian partisans were fighting the Germans and fascists in the mountains. Many escaped PoWs were working with the partisans. In Italy all covert operations were ran by 1 Special Force which included SAS, SOE, the Parachute Brigade and many other units and agencies including Popski’s Private Army (PPA) and the Long-Range Desert Group (LRDG).
Mildred was assigned to assisting with administration for a Major handling allied agents and partisan groups behind enemy lines. Parachute drops of stores, weapons and ammunition were arranged. On occasions Mildred was armed and accompanied her boss on visits into the field behind enemy lines to deliver stores to prearranged agent contacts. Often, she was the lookout while the Major covered the liaison or took photographs. On a number of occasions, they were ambushed. Once they had to drive through a land-slide of boulders despite enemy machine-gun fire covering the ambush zone, resulting in Mildred being injured in the face. Sometimes they had to quickly change directions to avoid further contacts with the enemy, often driving cross-country, through vineyards and farmland. On another occasion a farmer flagged them down to warn them that the farm at the end of a track was full of Germans – they drove right through at speed – followed by gunfire.
Later, 1 Special Force added the Balkans to their field of operations and influence, mainly with parachute drops and liaison with SOE cells who were working with partisan forces. The partisans had their own short airstrips that RAF Dakotas could land on to deliver arms, ammunition and explosives, and extract wounded partisans back to Bari for treatment in Italy. Mildred and others had to concentrate on keeping the SOE and the partisans in both Italy and the Balkans armed up.
The winter of 1944 was very cold with heavy snow and ice. There was only one wash basin providing just cold (very cold) water. There was no heating. Beds had been provided but without mattresses and bedding, and just one blanket. (I Special Force did not have the benefit of a Regimental Quartermaster staff like Regiments did and so they had to rely on the military to help them out.) Eventually they acquired mattress covers which they stuffed with dry straw and bits of canvas, and utilised army greatcoats as additional covers. Mildred and her companions took to sleeping in their clothes.
Christmas 1944
For Christmas Day 1944, Mildred and her friends found a nearby bombed house with a tunnel leading to a large cellar, which was empty apart from mounds of rubble. They cleared the rubble with the help of local soldiers, then they found a few chairs and wooden planks to create bench seating. A man with a harmonica was the nominated musician, decorations were improvised and word of the Christmas Day Carol Service passed around. The war continued, yet on Christmas Day many people of different nationalities and regiments arrived. Even German deserters turned up. Many could not speak English so it was decided to start with Silent Night, an international Christmas carol, and most knew the tune even if the words were different. This event remained fondly in Mildred’s memory throughout her life.
At the end of the war Mildred returned home to England, and to her company of the FANY, who at that stage were deploying some of their members to the Allied Control Commission (ACC) in Germany, where they were searching for FANY members who had disappeared while working with Resistance groups in Europe. However, Mildred was also approached by her pre-war employer, the shipping company, who wanted her back, so she returned to civilian life.
A lady not easily fazed, Mildred resumed her job, met her future husband Reg Schutz, married in 1952 and moved to Worcester Park in 1957. Number 10 Vale Road remained her home for the rest of her life, and was where she raised her five children. When Reg died in 1983, Mildred took up opportunities to travel around the world, and she also joined ELMS.
On a trip to Sulmona in 2001 with ELMS, she met aircrew evader Bob Frost and they remained close friends until his death in 2019. As a veteran, Mildred marched with the FANY on the Remembrance parades in London, was a member of the Special Forces Club and met royalty; she also volunteered for charity work and campaigned on behalf of local causes. A stoic and, always, interested and interesting lady, she remained with the FANY, ELMS, the MSMT and the SFC for the rest of her life.
This article appeared in the ELMS newsletter in Spring 2026. We are grateful for the permission to reproduce it here.
