Norwegian wartime escape to Holy Island is recalled
Sep 2 2010 The Journal
A WARTIME escape mission which brought five young Norwegians to Northumberland was yesterday commemorated near their landing site.
The Norwegians fled the Nazi invasion of their country in 1941 on a tiny boat, powered by a single engine, and finished on Holy Island to join the war effort here.
Yesterday, a group of Norwegians – including relatives of the five – unveiled a seat in the shadows of Lindisfarne Castle, near the beach where the boat landed.
The seat has a plaque bearing the names of the men and was a gift from their family and friends to thank islanders for their 1941 welcome.
Gunlaug Henriksen, 53, is the daughter of Kay Thorsen, one of the five to have made the journey.
Yesterday, she revealed how her father and one of the other men had rowed the boat across the North Sea, while their three friends suffered from sea sickness. She said the five men saw land but were not sure if it was Denmark or England.
She said: “It is very nice to see this place, I believe it must have been like heaven for them to come here.” After arriving in England, Kay learnt how to fly Spitfires and later went to Canada.
The seat was unveiled in the presence of a number of local residents, including Peggy Teago, 89, who remembers the Norwegians landing all those years ago.
