War Memoirs of Elizabeth and Alouette Isambard Owen

Comprises photocopies of two typescript volumes of an unpublished work entitled Four Years under the Boot by Elizabeth Isambard Owen, a vivid account of the experience of the writer and her sister Alouette at a concentration camp in occupied France during World War Two.

Elizabeth Isambard Owen, and her sister Alouette of Aber-soch, Gwynedd, north Wales were orphaned while quite young. They were daughters of medical consultant and lecturer Sir Herbert Isambard Owen who was also involved with the founding of several universities and was connected with the University of Wales, Bangor. The girls spent their early lives with relatives in north Wales, and in France. At the outbreak of the Second World War they were living in Paris and spent the period of occupation in a concentration camp at Caserne Vauban, Besancon from December 1940 to January 1945. The sisters returned to Wales after the war to live in Bangor. The account of their war experiences was written in 1950 with some material added in 1967.

Material is arranged in chronological order and incorporated into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts .

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Description compiled by Anne Lenaghan, August 2002.

Item level word-processed list is available at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor. Reference numbers: General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts: 18088-18089

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.

Also held at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor are the Papers of Sir Isambard Owen . A collection level description is available on the HE Archives Hub .