from:
PETER JOSEPH LAWLESS
& CLARISSE BALMER-GERBER LAWLESS,
PETER JOSEPH LAWLESS
& CLARISSE BALMER-GERBER LAWLESS,
From: Clarisse Blair
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021
4:42 PMTo: weihsien@proximus.be
Subject:
PETER JOSEPH LAWLESS and CLARISSE LAWLESS
In the above subject line are the names of my grandparents who were in Weihsien. They lived four doors from the Helsby family . If someone is monitoring this site I would be glad to correspond.
Sincerely,
Clarisse Blair
Dear Mr. Pander,
I hope the following information regarding my grandparents will be helpful for your archives.
Peter Joseph Lawless, an Irishman, was born in County Wexford in 1880. Clarisse Balmer–Gerber was born in Montreux, near Bern, Switzerland. They were married in 1910 and had two daughters. Georgia was born with Down’s Syndrome and lived her life in Switzerland.
Mary Mavis (my mother) was born in Tientsin, North China, 1920.
My grandfather was the Chief of Police in Tientsin. At the time Tientsin was lifetime leased to the British Crown. I was told that my grandmother was a missionary, and after reading the Helsby’s book, I would assume with the Orient Missionary Society.
In 1934 my grandfather knew of the impending invasion of North China by the Japanese and sent my mother who was 14 years of age to Switzerland. My mother was never able to speak of those days of leaving her parents and traveling such a distance. I only knew that my grandparents were in a prison camp, Weihsien, during the war.
In Meredith and Christine Helsby’s book, He Goes Before Them…Even Into Prison, my grandmother is mentioned on page 102. Her name is slightly misspelled, which is certainly understandable. She died of typhoid fever just eight days before the Americans liberated the camp.
After the war my grandfather testified at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal .
He eventually settled in Taunton, Somerset, England.
My mother left Switzerland to live in London in 1937. She was in nursing school at the time of the Blitz and survived forty nights of the German bombing. She was a registered nurse when she met and married my father, an American soldier from Poteet, Texas. After the war was over, she sailed on the HMS Queen Mary (a mother and baby ship) with my sister to the United States.
My grandfather came to the States to visit my family in 1950. We lived in San Antonio, Texas, and I remember him clearly…a large man who wore walking shorts and long socks, something American men did not do in the ‘50’s. He dearly loved my sister and me, and wrote frequent letters to us. Grandfather died in 1952 and is buried in Taunton, Somerset, England.
I remember my mother telling me that my grandparents loved the Chinese people.
Sincerely,
Clarisse Blair
I hope the following information regarding my grandparents will be helpful for your archives.
Peter Joseph Lawless, an Irishman, was born in County Wexford in 1880. Clarisse Balmer–Gerber was born in Montreux, near Bern, Switzerland. They were married in 1910 and had two daughters. Georgia was born with Down’s Syndrome and lived her life in Switzerland.
Mary Mavis (my mother) was born in Tientsin, North China, 1920.
My grandfather was the Chief of Police in Tientsin. At the time Tientsin was lifetime leased to the British Crown. I was told that my grandmother was a missionary, and after reading the Helsby’s book, I would assume with the Orient Missionary Society.
In 1934 my grandfather knew of the impending invasion of North China by the Japanese and sent my mother who was 14 years of age to Switzerland. My mother was never able to speak of those days of leaving her parents and traveling such a distance. I only knew that my grandparents were in a prison camp, Weihsien, during the war.
In Meredith and Christine Helsby’s book, He Goes Before Them…Even Into Prison, my grandmother is mentioned on page 102. Her name is slightly misspelled, which is certainly understandable. She died of typhoid fever just eight days before the Americans liberated the camp.
After the war my grandfather testified at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal
. He eventually settled in Taunton, Somerset, England.
My mother left Switzerland to live in London in 1937. She was in nursing school at the time of the Blitz and survived forty nights of the German bombing. She was a registered nurse when she met and married my father, an American soldier from Poteet, Texas. After the war was over, she sailed on the HMS Queen Mary (a mother and baby ship) with my sister to the United States.
My grandfather came to the States to visit my family in 1950. We lived in San Antonio, Texas, and I remember him clearly…a large man who wore walking shorts and long socks, something American men did not do in the ‘50’s. He dearly loved my sister and me, and wrote frequent letters to us. Grandfather died in 1952 and is buried in Taunton, Somerset, England.
I remember my mother telling me that my grandparents loved the Chinese people.
Sincerely,
Clarisse Blair