At our New Year meeting, we are delighted to welcome Ellie Somme, MBE.

Ellie’s father Sven and uncle Jacob, both leading scientists, led the XU Norwegian Resistance movement against the Nazi occupation in WW2. She tells a mesmerising story of espionage and heroism illustrated with artefacts and documents as she traces the survival of the XU all the way through the Cold War until 1988.

Sven’s Story – Another Man’s Shoes tells the extraordinary true story of Norwegian scientist and resistance leader Sven Somme, as revealed by his daughter Ellie Somme. During the Nazi occupation of Norway, Sven became a key leader in the XU resistance network, recruiting and training 90 secret agents—none of whom were ever exposed. His brother Iacob, head of intelligence for Milorg, was arrested, brutally tortured, and executed in 1944. Despite orders to flee, Sven repeatedly returned to his dangerous work until his own arrest in June 1944. Facing certain execution, he escaped dramatically and fled across the mountains to Sweden, pursued by 900 German soldiers and bloodhounds. Sven’s gripping memoir has sold widely in the UK, inspired BBC radio drama, and is supported by rare resistance documents now held by the Norwegian Resistance Museum. His courageous, human story resonates powerfully today.

Ellie is also founder and leader of the locally-based charity, The Teddy Trust, who collect and distribute thousands of teddy bears to children who have suffered the horrors of war and abuse across the world and she will briefly explain this work before her story of 'Another Man's Shoes'

We meet each month in the elegant Music Room of Baskerville Hall Hotel, Clyro and enjoy coАee from 10am and lunch from 12.15pm (please book on arrival).
Entrance is free for members and £5 for visitors; annual membership is only £15, renewable in January.

The Teddy Trust is a small Herefordshire-based charity, run entirely by volunteers, that reaches out to help children across the world who have experienced the horrors of war, are living in extreme poverty or have suffered horrendous abuse.Most of the children they send to have suffered the most appalling trauma and very often, a soft, cuddly teddy bear that they can love and cherish is the only thing they have to call their own. So they do have strict specifications for the teddy bears they send. We will find out more in this talk from Ellie.