Frank Unwin MBE

Born in Liverpool in July 1920, Frank Unwin joined the Territorial Army, enlisting in the Royal Artillery aged 18. He saw action in North Africa, Greece, Crete before being captured at Tobruk in June 1942. His experiences as a prisoner of war are the subject of this memoir. Tragically his 12-year-old sister was lost at sea as an evacuee child bound for Canada.

After the war, Frank worked for the Ordnance Survey. Having tasted other cultures in the war he joined the Foreign Office and, together with his wife Marjorie and to children, served in Cuba, Israel, Laos, Italy, Canada and Nigeria, mostly as a consular officer.

Frank has returned year after year to Tuscany and kept up with his wartime friends and their descendants around Montebenichi and the surrounding area. Now widowed, Frank lives in Kent.