A French-born woman who earned a bravery medal in the First World War – and later aided the French Resistance – died in Ryde on 9th August 1976.
When Constance Green passed away at the Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital in Ryde on 9th August 1976, aged 83, she left behind a story that stretched from the battlefields of the First World War to occupied France during the Second before eventually ending on the Isle of Wight.
Her remarkable journey began in 1915 when, while serving coffee in her parents’ café in France, she met E. Green, a British machine gunner recovering from wounds received at Vimy Ridge. The pair fell in love, but the First World War soon separated them.
While Mr Green returned to military service, Constance devoted herself to caring for wounded soldiers near the front line. Her service earned her a medal for bravery, while shrapnel wounds left facial scars that remained with her for the rest of her life.
The war almost claimed the life of the man she would later marry. After learning that Mr Green and a companion were seriously ill with Spanish flu in a field hospital, Constance travelled 95 miles through snow to reach them and helped nurse the men back to health.
The couple married at Hampstead in 1919 and went on to build a life far removed from the battlefields of Europe. Mr Green, who had begun his career as a juggler’s apprentice in Battersea, became a knockabout clown, actor and Royal Command performer. He was also said to have appeared in the original cast of The Prisoner of Zenda.
For the next decade, husband and wife toured together as Les Rouges et Noires, a stage act named after the red and black insignia of the First Army.
The outbreak of the Second World War once again changed the course of Constance’s life. In 1940, she travelled to France to visit her dying mother and became trapped when the country fell to German forces. During the occupation she became involved with the French Resistance, passing information to underground fighters.
The war brought tragedy to her family. Relatives were shot for their part in the Resistance, and Constance herself later spent time in a concentration camp before eventually being reunited with her husband after the war.
The couple later settled in Lake and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1969.
Mr Green died in 1973, almost 60 years after the pair had first met when a wounded British soldier walked into a French café during the First World War.
