Nazi camp Briton finally laid to rest at home...72 years on
After a successful appeal from family and friends, his body has finally returned home to Jersey, where a ceremony attended by more than 100 well-wishers was held on Wednesday to honour his memory.
He was reburied yesterday close to where he grew up in St Helier.
During the service at St Saviour’s Church, Mr Le Villio’s cousin Stan Hockley said he was “delighted” to have him home.
He added: “It’s been a long, long journey. The main problem was financial – it cost a lot of money.”
Mr Hockley added: “I remember kicking a ball around with him in the street, happy memories.
“He was a bit of a Jack the lad, running about and doing all these things.
“He was mad on motorbikes. He had his own Matchless motorbike and he adored it.”
On the bike drama, he said: “It was harmless fun, really.
“But he was caught, arrested by the German military police, charged with military larceny and sentenced to three months in France.
“That was in June 1944, just before the D-Day invasions cut off Jersey from France.”
At the service, Stanley Keiller, Frank Le Villio, left, was arrested after taking a German officer’s motorbike and sent to Bergen-Belsen, above. Right, German officer chats to a bobby in Jersey in 1940 who was a young boy in Jersey during the occupation, said repatriation was “closure” for Mr Le Villio’s family, who finally have him home.
Mr Keiller added: “He was a teenager who was taken away from us in those occupation years and there’s a satisfaction in having found him.
“He would have lived a short and sad life, but now he can rest in peace.”