MSMT Lunch Team
On November 19th 2025, the magnificent RAF Club in London again hosted the annual lunch of the Monte San Martino Trust, which on this occasion was attended by 118 supporters. The Master of Ceremonies was MSMT secretary Letitia Blake, who handled proceedings with great aplomb in the absence of Phil Cooke, the chairman, who, to his regret, had to miss the event for personal reasons.
Among the guests were Brig. Gen. Massimiliano Mongillo, the Italian defence attache, and three Italian supporters: Barbara Miandro, a former MSMT student, Bernardo Blasi-Foglietti, whose parents hid British prisoners of war, and Francesca Marchetti, whose grandfather helped partisans who were supporting escaping PoWs.
During the lunch Letitia also singled out Christopher Prentice, former British ambassador to Rome, thanking him for his work for the Trust now that he has stepped down as a trustee. She also introduced two new trustees, Baroness Bonham-Carter and Tom Carver, author of the book Where the hell have you been? about his PoW stepfather.
Letitia read out a message from Phil Cooke, who described events he had attended during his first year as chair – including the visit of King Charles to Italy. Phil’s message may be read below here. In Phil’s absence, Trust officials reported on different aspects of its work, including David Kettle, the administrator and student co-ordinator, and trustee John Simkins, both of whom write elsewhere in this newsletter.
John’s talk, which described the PoW website created by the Parri institute of Milan, concluded with the donation to the Trust of an invaluable primary source about the escape of 600 PoWs from PG49 Fontanellato. This is the wartime diary of Lt. John Langrishe, which was presented by John’s daughter-in-law, Lynda Langrishe, in line with the wishes of her late husband Patrick and John’s widow Isabel, who passed away this year. The diary, small enough to fit into John Langrishe’s pocket during his successful walk down Italy to the Allied Lines, has been lodged in the MSMT archive at Cambridge University.
Reconstructing father’s war
The highlight of the day’s entertainment was a discussion between former Trust chair Nick Young and documentary maker Andrew Bethell, whose father Drew was a PoW at Fontanellato. Andrew worked on a seminal fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Royal Opera House, broadcast in 1996, and in 1987 had made a film with his father called Stranger at the Gate (accessible through the Trust’s website) about Drew’s escape and walk down the Apennines to rejoin the Allies Lines. Andrew has now written a book entitled In Love and War, Finding the father I neglected to know, in which he reconstructs his father’s story in the words Drew might himself have used. (Drew, like so many other escaping PoWs and war veterans, was reticent: he told his son: “Old boy, one was taught not to talk about oneself.”)
Andrew picked out three “magical moments” to describe his father’s remarkable war. The first was his discovery of a Thames barge graveyard holding a barge that might even have been the craft that brought his father back from Dunkirk with the 19th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. The second “moment” was Andrew’s humbling realisation that, after Drew’s escape from imprisonment in Italy, he rejoined his regiment and, following the landings at Anzio, was in the thick of the campaign to drive the Germans out of Italy.
The third “moment” was coming across letters that Drew wrote subsequently from Palestine to his future wife (Andrew’s mother), whom he had met on the slopes of the Cedars of Lebanon during his military service there.
At the conclusion of the talks Letitia recommended the Trust’s bookstall to supporters and thanked David Kettle, the main organiser of the lunch, along with his assistants – herself, Elly Evans and John Simkins. Finally, she proposed the traditional Toast to the Italian People, which goes straight to the main purpose of the Trust’s existence – to commemorate the brave Italians who sheltered Allied prisoners of war.
A message from our Chairman, Phil Cooke
Good afternoon to all of the supporters of the Monte San Martino Trust,
I am very sorry not to be at the lunch today. It is an occasion I was so looking forward to attend. Last year, shortly before taking on the role of Chair of Trustees I attended my first lunch. I was made very welcome, made many new friends, and learnt a great deal about the extraordinary impact of the Trust’s work on the lives of so many people.
Since beginning as chair on 1 January – I received a warm message of congratulations from my predecessor Nick Young shortly after midnight on 31 December – I have been fortunate to attend a number of events.
Nick and I were both invited to attend two events connected to the State visit of the King and Queen to Italy. Quite apart from what King Charles said in his speech to the joint houses of parliament, what most impressed me as a linguist, who has championed language teaching through some difficult times, was the King’s decision to use a mixture of Italian and English, including the great line from Dante’s Inferno when the poet and Virgil emerge from hell to “riveder le stelle”. The King’s Italian was praised by all, and our founder, Keith Killby, a fine linguist himself as well as a champion of European integration, would have been delighted by this significant gesture.
Keith’s vision was for young Italians to have the opportunity to spend some time in England. When the Trust was founded many of our students came with only some basic English. It is more likely now that they come to perfect their knowledge, having started their learning at primary school. One of my first acts as Chair was to visit the school at Wimbledon, where I met the school’s director and his staff, along with two of our students. It was immediately evident that the students were immersing themselves in British culture and making new friends. Our grants are at the centre of our mission.
Links with Italy
The Trust has established some key partnerships in recent years with, for example, the University of Cambridge, represented here by our researcher, Ruth Murphy. The Cambridge link is an important one, and we very much look forward to seeing the fruit of Ruth’s work over the next few years. In Italy, the Trust has worked closely with the Parri Institute, named after the great Resistance leader and Italy’s first post-war prime minister, Ferruccio Parri. In early November the Parri institute organised a wonderful event at Fontanellato to launch the Allies in Italy website, another bi-lingual initiative. This was a day of intense activities, and the audience included pupils from several schools to whom I was able to talk about our bursaries. One of the highlights of the day was the very moving moment when my fellow trustee John Simkins, during his own speech, announced that two relatives of the “helpers” who had come to his father’s aid were present. They stood up, to thunderous applause.
At last year’s lunch I had the privilege to meet Admiral Virdis, who has been a great supporter of the Trust. Shortly before he returned to Rome to a new role I, along with Letitia Blake, Christopher Woodhead and Julia MacKenzie, attended a lunch at the Italian Embassy in London. This was a very convivial event, a term which springs to mind not only in the context of today’s annual lunch, but also echoes the great generosity of the contadini towards the escaped PoWs. At the embassy we met Brigadier General Massimiliano Mongillo, who has replaced Admiral Virdis. I am delighted that the Brigadier General has joined us today, and I wish him well in his role.
I have been looking for an appropriate Italian quotation to close, and am reminded of the Italian translation of a famous aphorism of Robert Louis Stevenson: “Il vino è poesia imbottigliata” (Wine is bottled poetry). I will be toasting you all remotely.
