Bible belonging to WWII Scottish war-hero 'The Tartan Pimpernel' makes historic homecoming.
A
Bible belonging to a heroic Scottish Christian minister of the Second World War
has been returned to his former church.
The
Rev Dr Donald Caskie was known in WWII as the 'Tartan Pimpernel', remembered for
helping save more than 2,000 lives during the war.
Now
his nephew, Tom Caskie, has gifted the reverend's Gaelic Bible to the Scots Kirk
in Paris, the church Donald led when Germany invaded France in 1940, according
to the Church of Scotland.
This
Bible was used by the reverend at the time, who used the Gaelic language to hide
sensitive information from the enemy, Tom said. Caskie had denounced the Nazis
from his pulpit, and had to flee when the Germans invaded.
But
instead of seeking safety in the UK, Donald remained on mainland Europe and
instead went to Marsaille, France where he lived a double life, running a
Seaman's Mission and secretly helping British and Allied soldiers through the
mountains and into Spain.
He
was later recruited by British Intelligence to continue in his work protecting
the military there.
Caskie
was eventually betrayed and subsequently arrested by the Nazi-aligned Vichy
police. They had him banished from Marsaille, but his work continued when he
went to Grenoble, where as a university chaplain he secretly helped allied
soldiers, seamen and airmen escape.
The
reverend narrowly escaped a death sentence from the Gestapo and was a prisoner
of war before returning to Scotland when the war finished, where he died in
1983. The tales of his wartime exploits were documented in Donald's
autobiography, The Tartan Pimpernel, still
in print today.
'Donald
was motivated and sustained by his Christian faith,' said Thomas Caskie.
'He
was a very gentle person and clearly he loved humanity and would help anyone he
could. Donald rejected the chance of personal safety and risked his life time
and again to ensure others could be safe and free.'
Thomas
inherited the Bible from his father, who had received it from his brother,
Donald.
'When
I heard that the Scots Kirk wanted to install a permanent memorial to my uncle,
I thought it was more appropriate that the Bible lived there rather than
anywhere else,' he said.
The
Rev Jan Steyn, 56, the current minister of Scots Kirk, was delighted about the
gift.
'I
gladly accepted it and as the inscription in the front of the Bible indicates,
he acquired it while still in Paris,' he said.
'Its
return marks a homecoming after more than 50 years.' Christian Today.
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