News-Info-Alerts

Re: No Happy Ending in POW Search

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 23, 2002

"NO HAPPY ENDING IN POW'S SEARCH

Shopkeeper James Leeming did not know where to start when he received a letter from a German prisoner of war asking for help to track down a Derby man he met over 50 years ago.

But following an appeal in the Evening Telegraph on Friday, Mr Leeming has been inundated with calls about Eric Young - the subject of a desperate search by Eberhard Fischer.

However, Mr Young will never know of Mr Fischer's bid to find him for he died in 1984, but, as Mr Leeming discovered from the calls he received, he led a charmed life.

Mr Leeming said: "The phone never stopped ringing soon after the article in the paper. I'm glad we were able to shed some light on Mr Young. But I'm sad that we can't have a happy ending by reuniting him with Mr Fischer."

Mr Fischer was disappointed when he heard that Mr Young had died.

He said: "I would have liked to have met Eric again, but I'm glad that he did well. I would like to thank all who helped with the inquiry."

Mr Fischer (77) sent a letter to Mr Leeming because the shop he owns, Step by Step children's shoe shop in Green Lane, Derby, used to be a restaurant owned by Mr Young's father.

Mr Fischer did not have an address for Mr Young, who befriended him in 1946 while he was a prisoner of war in Sunny Hill, Derby.

He had continued to send cards over the years to an address in Jersey, where he last heard Mr Young was living, but feared that any correspondence could have been intercepted by police in the former Communist East Germany, where Mr Fischer lives.

One of those who contacted Mr Leeming was Frank Gilbert, of Ashbourne Road, Derby. His late father, Bill, was Mr Young's cousin.

He said: "I cannot even remember meeting him (Mr Young). If I did I would have been very young. But I know that he went to Jersey where he made his fortune in business."

Mr Young left Derby in 1947 and set up a shop which eventually became a large chain of jewellery and souvenir shops in Jersey's capital, St Helier. He owned three Rolls-Royce cars.

But it was his hobby of breeding orchids that made his name. In 1958 he set up a charitable trust, the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, which has one of the finest collections of orchids in the world. It is housed in one of the island's top attractions, which gets 20,000 visitors a year. The foundation continues Mr Young's work, employing 10 people.

Mr Young, who was unmarried, died suddenly of a heart attack in London in January, 1984, after attending a meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society orchid committee. He was 73.

Jane Ponter, foundation administrator, said Mr Young used to speak fondly of Derby.

She said: "Eric was an interesting character and I'm sure he would have been delighted to learn that Mr Fischer was hoping to contact him again after all these years. He was a kind man."

Miss Ponter said Mr Young gave money to charity, which included the building of a home for disabled people that bears his name."