When Reg Pye was a young soldier in France in the Second World War, he noticed a girl in need of food and instinctively gave her his own. Now, 78 years later, the pair have been reunited.
Mr Pye, now 99, spotted the 14-year-old girl looking at him as he ate his evening meal while moving through Normandy in June 1944, two weeks after D-Day. He was 21 at the time and serving with the 224 Field Company, Royal Engineers as a driver, carrying sappers, mines and ammunitions during the Battle of Normandy.
His meal that evening was a slice of jam and bread and a tin of pilchards. He gave the girl his bread and jam without a second thought, and she promptly disappeared with it.
When he woke the next morning, he found she had half-filled his mess tin with milk and left a picture of herself with a written message on the back. He put it in his wallet and has kept hold of it ever since.
This month the girl was identified as Huguette, now 92. She was reunited with Mr Pye in France where he showed her the picture he had held for 78 years.
Mr Pye, from Burry Port, South Wales, told her: “Nice to see you again after such a long time. We got older but we’re still the same.”
They drank champagne with their extended families and a translator. And, as a nod to their shared history, he even gave her a jam sandwich.
Mr Pye said: “The memory of my very brief encounter with this young girl will stay with me forever. In the bleakest of times this bit of human interaction made a huge mark on my life, I have carried her picture in my wallet for 78 years always hoping we might meet again.”
Mr Pye went back to Normandy 20 years ago to try to find Huguette but was unsuccessful. After hearing the story, volunteer Paul Cook, from the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, an organisation run by London black cab drivers which arranges free trips for veterans to the Netherlands, Belgium and France, started a social media campaign which eventually reunited the pair.
Mr Pye added: “I cannot believe that she has finally been found and I wish to thank everyone, including our friend Emma, our cab driver Paul and the Taxi Charity’s French adviser Nathalie Varniere, who have helped to make my dream come true.”
Mr Cook said: “There are no words to describe how elated I am that Reg has found Huguette. This is like a Hollywood blockbuster and I wouldn’t be surprised if this beautiful story was made into a film.”
