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from Daily Telegraph Tuesday 11  April  2000

Soldier who spent four years in a cupboard
By Nicole Martin and Michael Burke

THE story of a French widow who risked her life by hiding a British Army soldier in a cupboard for nearly four years during the First World War is to be made into a film.

Robert Carlyle is tipped to play the lead role of Patrick Fowler, a trooper in the 11th Hussars who was sheltered and fed by Marie Belmont-Gobert and her 20-year-old daughter, Angèle, while their farmhouse was occupied by 20 German officers.

Fowler's plight was first revealed by The Daily Telegraph in Feb 1927 after two reporters travelled to the village of Bertry in northern France on the advice of Brig Gen Sir Edward Spears of the 11th Hussars.

Their reports described how Fowler, an Irishman who had become detached from his regiment during fighting at the battle of Le Cateau in 1914, was found in the woods by the widow's son-in-law and brought to her home.

He spent almost four years sitting motionless in the living room cupboard, staring through the keyhole at the Germans in the same room. At night, he would creep out from the armoire to stretch his limbs and eat with the French women while the Germans slept upstairs.

Detection by the Germans would have meant almost certain death. Cpl Herbert Hull, of the same regiment, was shot in 1915 after he was discovered in the same village, hiding in the roof of a garden shed. Marie Louise Cardon, the shed's owner, was condemned to death but her sentence was commuted to one of imprisonment in Germany, separating her from her three children.

Fowler's suffering and the women's courage provoked an enormous response from the newspaper's readers, with entire pages devoted to letters urging people to contribute to a fund set up for the impoverished family by Lord Burnham, then owner of The Daily Telegraph.

It was the "selflessness and bravery" of the women that prompted the producer Bill Shepherd to turn their story into a £3.1 million film, Close Quarters, that will be made at Shepperton Studios in Middlesex and on location in France. Mr Shepherd, whose previous films include Mrs Dalloway, described the tale as "a celebration of the human spirit".

He said: "I like making films based on stories that inspire and lift people. The first time I heard about this amazing bravery by a widow and her daughter, who risked their lives by the hour for four years, I could hardly believe it was true. The Daily Telegraph did a great deal of work to bring their case to the attention of the world and one of the most touching aspects is that when the journalists tracked down the house, the armoire was in exactly the same place."

Although the cast has not yet been finalised, he said that the actresses Anna Galiena and Jeanne Moreau were among those tipped to play the widow, while the actress Romaine Bohringer was being considered for the role of Angèle.

Allan Bardsley, a producer of drama documentaries who will work as the film's associate producer, first came across the story while working on a programme in Newcastle. He said the film was based on "ordinary people caught up in a terrible conflict".

"This is a story which is not only about war. It is about the human condition and what excited us was that the sentiments behind it are applicable to any situation where people suffer," he said. "Behind the drama there is a very disturbing story about courage, bravery and selfless devotion. In the end how many people would put their lives at risk to protect two unknown men knowing that if they had been caught their own families would be killed?"

The women were eventually awarded the OBE and given a reception by the Lord Mayor of London at which they were presented with £3,400 donated by the readers of The Daily Telegraph.

The women described the daily risks they took. When news spread in Bertry that another soldier in hiding had been discovered and killed, they decided that Fowler had to be moved. In the disguise of a woman, he was taken during the night to a hole under a barn, which was to be his home for the next month.

"Patrick had a beard so you will understand how frightened mother and I felt about his removal," Angèle told the reporter. "It was, however, a nasty dark night when they went out and Patrick had the shawl pulled well over his face."

The soldier was freed on Oct 10, 1918, when British troops entered the village. He later took up a post in Scotland and died aged 90 in 1964. Mme Belmont-Gobert moved to St Quentin after interest in her bravery had diminished and died in her eighties in 1948. Her daughter married after the war and died in 1960.

Mr Shepherd said he hoped to start work on the film later this year. "Everyone who has come into contact with this project has been impressed by what three women achieved during the occupation of the town," he said. "It was a story which had to be made into a movie and we are now trying to raise the final money to start shooting.