Hector Emmanuelli has visited the Island again, the Peel Heritage Trust held a small reception for him at St Patrick's Church Hall where he recorded his memories of his time in Peel when he was mistaken as an enemy Alien during the Second World War. It was lovely meeting him again, and thanks to to Peel Heritage Trust for arranging the reception and recording which hopefully will be available to listen to in the Ward Library later this year.

A Sense of Belonging - Update...
Further to the item about Hector Emanuelli, the Library has been contacted by Susan Best, whose Grandfather was one of the Metropolitan Police Guards at the Peveril Camp during the war and actually played in the Football match and has an identical football programe to the one Mr. Emanuelli donated to the Leece Museum recently. The programe was designed and drawn by Hector Emanuelli and Susan has been trying to trace Hector as he also gave Susan’s Grandfather other paintings and her Grandfather would have loved to have known what happened to the men in the Camp.

Susan’s Grandfather was nicknamed ‘Skipper Best’ but his real name was Matthew Saunders Best. He was a very keen footballer and also played for Dagenham F. C. He is on the Littorio v Met Police Football team sheet - at the top as Captain.

If anyone has any recollections of the Peveril Camp either as an Internee or part of the Guards and would like to contact Susan, I can forward any information to her.

A Sense of Belonging
The Ward Library was very pleased to welcome Mr Hector Emanuelli and his brother to Peel. Mr Emanuelli was born in South Wales to Italian immigrant parents. After the outbreak of the Second World War Mr Emanuelli was mistaken as an enemy alien and interned at the Peveril Camp in Peel, along with other Italian internees and other enemy aliens. Fortunately in 1942, he was able to be released after a tribunal in London.

He has written a book about his life and times called A Sense of Belonging, and sent a copy to the Ward Library. The chapters detailing his time spent in Peel were of great interest, and I wrote back to thank him for the book and that I was sure other borrowers at the Ward Library would enjoy the Peveril Camp section.

In turn Mr Emanuelli wrote to say he had some original items from his interment at ‘M’ Camp, Peel and did I know of any local Museum that would be interested in receiving them. I got in touch with Roy Baker the Curator of the Leece Museum, who contacted Mr Emanuelli immediately to accept, and expected the items to be posted over to the Island. We were delighted to find that he was going to come over to the Island and hand these items personally to the Leece Museum.

Mr Emanuelli (who was 90 in September) has happy memories of his time in Peel, despite the restrictions. One of the photographs included a photograph of a football team made up of Italian internees who played against the Metropolitan Police (who were the Guards at the Camp). It was pleasure to meet the Emanuellis and it's great that these items, which record an important part of Peel's history, are being preserved.

Carol

Welcome surprise visitors
The Ward Library was surprised recently by two unexpected - but very welcome visitors - Mr and Mrs Tim Harvie of Ontario, Canada called in at the Library and it was revealed that Mr Harvie was the Great Grandson of James Kewley Ward. It was through James Ward that the Ward Library was donated to the Town of Peel. Mr Harvie is pictured here holding the original door knocker from the house JK Ward was born in, which was on the site of the Library.

It was so interesting meeting Ann and Tim Harvie and I was able to show them the talk given at the Peel Heritage Trust in September 2007 by Arthur Bawden and other family information collected for the Centenary.

Barbara Ward Harvie the mother of Tim Harvie, visited Peel in 1974 with her cousin John Ward Eadie, and Tim seemed delighted to have followed in her footsteps.

Roy Baker, Curator of the Leece Museum was also able to show them the Ward Family Bible and other artifacts connected to the family, some of which were left to the Town by Mr Eadie and another cousin Miss Betty Ward on another visit in 1978.

Ann Harvie was presented with some flowers and they gave the Library a generous donation, which will be used to purchase some books for the Manx Collection.

After visiting the Library Mr and Mrs Harvie were heading up Castle Street to find St Peters Clock Tower which James Kewley Ward also donated to the Town in 1871. Sometime in the seventies the clock stopped working and Mr John Ward Eadie and the family paid to have it repaired.

It was a pity that the Library had lost contact with descendants of the Ward family, despite trying to trace any relatives in time for the Centenary held three years ago; hopefully the links will be maintained for the future with the help of modern technology.