The Swiss granddaughter of a former Pembroke Dock woman has returned again to the town’s Heritage Centre to view a special display featuring a rare King’s Medal awarded to her grandmother.
Therese Burckhardt, from Zurich, is the granddaughter of Mrs Beryl Schaerer Morse. During World War II this remarkable woman headed an organisation which assisted so many Allied servicemen who had escaped into neutral Switzerland. Her role was recognised in 1952 with the award of the King’s Medal, one of only 2,500 granted.
That medal, along with photographs, family records and an information panel on Mrs Beryl Schaerer Morse, are now on display at the Heritage Centre.
Beryl Schaerer Morse was born in Pembroke Dock in 1887, the daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Harrison Morse who lived in Pembroke Dock and later in Tenby. After her marriage to a Swiss banker in 1913 she lived in Switzerland but she had always considered Pembrokeshire as ‘home’, and returned for many summers to the family’s Tenby home. She expressly wished that she be buried near her father at Llanion Cemetery, Pembroke Dock, following her death in 1967.
Last summer Therese, accompanied by a childhood friend, Penny Tighe of Pembroke, first visited the centre bringing the medal and family records. Recently she returned and has added other documents and family photos to the centre’s archive.
Joining Therese again this time was Penny Tighe along with Ruth Waddington, who now lives in the Tenby house which Therese’s grandparents had built in the 1930s as their Pembrokeshire home. Therese spent many happy holiday summers with her brother Roland – always called ‘Chips’ by his grandmother – in Tenby.
Said Therese: “I am very pleased with how my grandmother’s medal and her story are displayed at the Heritage Centre and also pleased to bring more records to add to the archive there.”
Therese Burckhardt shows the King’s Medal, awarded to her grandmother, to Ruth Waddington at Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre. PICTURE: PDHC