Gladys tracked down her boyfriend in German POW camp
By Joe McCann
ONE of Northern Ireland’s oldest citizens, who has a remarkable wartime love story with a prisoner of war in a German POW camp, has celebrated her 105th birthday.
Gladys Jenkins quietly celebrated her latest birthday last week with staff and family at Mullaghboy Nursing Home in Donaghadee, where she has lived for the past 15 years.
Though she now lives with dementia and is no longer able to speak, her son Michael shared the wonderful story of how his parents first met and how their love survived the turmoil of the Second World War.
Michael’s father, Leslie Jenkins, was a Private in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and met Gladys while on leave in Bangor and the pair fell for each other.
“My mum was from Bangor originally but was born in Coleraine,” Michael said. “They met when my dad was on leave and fell in love, but after he went back to service, he was captured and made a prisoner of war. He ended up in Stalag 3B in Germany.”
Despite his captivity, Gladys was able to find Leslie’s location and the two kept in contact.
Michael said: “Through the Red Cross, prisoners could get letters. My mum sent him a photo of herself, and it was stamped in red, which meant he was allowed to keep it. Photographs stamped in black were withheld by the Germans because they deemed them propaganda but my father kept that photo with him for the rest of the war.”
Michael recalled asking his father about his time as a POW when he and his brothers were children.
“We asked him, did he try to escape — like in the Great Escape film. He said he and three other soldiers did get out, but after a few days they were starving.
“They’d had to eat a dog and some stolen turnips. They made a sort of stew with it and he told us, ‘It was absolutely disgusting, but we were starving.’ Eventually they flagged down a patrol and gave themselves up.”
After the war, Leslie moved to Bangor and sought out and married Gladys. At the time, rationing was still in effect.
“My mum worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and her workmates all pooled their ration cards together to get enough to bake a wedding cake,” said Michael.
“My father didn’t have a job and a great-uncle who was a police sergeant wanted him to join the RUC, but my mum wouldn’t allow it, she didn’t want him posted far away.”
Leslie instead joined the Belfast Harbour Police, where he worked for 27 years before moving to a security role at Ulster Polytechnic, now Ulster University.
“He got a commendation for bravery when the IRA bombed the campus,” Michael added.
The couple eventually retired to a bungalow in Bangor. During their marriage they raised three sons, one now lives in Canada, the other in Spain and remained devoted to each other until Leslie’s sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 67.
“It really broke my mother’s heart when he died,” Michael said. “They’d been so happy together and were devoted to one another.”
Michael said his mother moved into Mullaghboy nursing home in Donaghadee 15 years ago when she began having problems with her memory. She had told Michael and his brothers she would like to go there after a neighbour had also become a resident.
Michael added: “In the past few years she’s lost the ability to speak and is really in a world of her own, but it was very kind of the staff to host something for her birthday. She got a letter from Queen Elizabeth when she turned 100 and now one from King Charles and Queen Camilla for turning 105. Irish President Michael D Higgins has also sent her a medal every year since she turned 100, and the staff had them all laid out. It was just lovely to be there with her.”
