We heard today from our friends in Normandy, news of the passing of Madame Suzanne Lenauld, the lady who gifted the Hillman Bunker to the Suffolk Regiment in 1989.

Suzanne Lenauld was 22 when the invasion came. As C Company held the village of Colleville-sur-Orne, a mortar bomb landed killing and wounding a section of machine gunners from the Middlesex Regiment (who were attached to 1/Suffolk). Madame Lenauld and her fiancée cared for one young soldier, who shortly afterwards died of his wounds, They buried him at the rear of their farm. He remained there for some years until he was reinterred at nearby Hermanville cemetery. They never knew his name and for years always wondered who the unknown Tommy was.

In the years that passed, Madame Lenauld was always humbled by the deeds of those who had come to liberate them, especially those of the young man who they had cared for. After meeting with the Suffolk veterans who returned to Colleville in 1984, she decided to give the piece of land upon which the ‘Hillman’ bunker had stood, to the Suffolk Regiment as a memorial to those who had come to liberate them 40 years before.

In 1989, the land and the bunker was presented to the Suffolk Regiment by Madame Lenauld and the Regiment still owns the site today. The photograph left, shoes part of the committee that made this happen. Lieutenant Frank Matthews, Madame Lenauld, Brigadier Bill Deller and Major Hugh Merriam.

The last time we saw Madame Lenauld was in 2004 when she came to Minden Day with a party of Les Amis. A great friend of the Friends, her generosity ensured that uniquely the Suffolk Regiment owns the very land they fought so hard to take in 1944.

We send our most sincere condolences to the Lenauld family.