Born Hermione Llewellyn in 1913, the life of Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly took a dramatic turn in 1941 when her husband, a lieutenant in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, was captured by Rommel’s Afrika Korps, leading to his imprisonment as a prisoner of war in Italy. She wrote this diary entry eight months later, on the first Christmas Day apart. Her husband remained captive until his escape in 1944, a lonely three year period during which Hermione served the British government in the Middle East. In 1954 she founded the charity now known as Book Aid International, which to this day sends hundreds of thousands of books to developing countries each year. In 1970, she was awarded an OBE.

The Diary Entry

Christmas Day, 1941
Jerusalem

This must be a specially sad day for many millions of people.

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Further Reading

The Countess of Ranfurly’s endearing diaries were published in 1994 with the title, To War with Whitaker: Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly, 1939-45, and they are excellent.

Also…

• Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly at Wikipedia
• Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly’s obituary in The Telegraph
• The website of Book Aid International, an organisation founded by Hermione in 1954