A remarkable and untold story of a former Pembroke Dock woman who helped British military personnel who escaped to neutral Switzerland in World War II has been revealed, following the donation of a rare medal to the town’s Heritage Centre.

The King’s Medal - one of only 2,500 awarded - was given in the early post war years to Mrs Beryl Schaerer Morse who was born in Pembroke Dock in 1887. When later living in London she met a Swiss banker, and they were married in 1913. She lived the rest of her life in Switzerland.

Beryl Schaerer Morse was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Harrison Morse who lived in Pembroke Dock and later in Tenby. During the war years she was, according to newspaper reports, head of an organisation which assisted shot down British and Allied airmen to escape over the Swiss frontier.

Beryl Schaerer Morse was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Harrison Morse who lived in Pembroke Dock and later in Tenby
Beryl Schaerer Morse was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Thomas Harrison Morse who lived in Pembroke Dock and later in Tenby (Heritage Centre)

Her granddaughter, Therese Burckhardt, recently visited Pembroke Dock and was directed to the Heritage Centre. She was delighted to find that the archive team was very keen to display the medal and tell Mrs Schaerer Morse’s story.

She said: “It was a joy to have such a welcome and to know that the centre would take the medal into its collection. It is so important to me that the medal returns ‘home’.

“My grandmother was very proud of her Welsh roots. Her father built a bungalow in Broadwell Hayes, Tenby, where my grandmother lived until she left for Switzerland, and family members spent many summer holidays there. I have fond memories of visits to Tenby, playing on the sands with my brother Roland.

“Grandmother introduced us to Wales, and she expressly wished to be buried at Llanion Cemetery, Pembroke Dock, near her father. I well remember attending her funeral at Llanion in 1967.”

The King’s Medal, instigated in 1945 by King George VI, was awarded to civilian foreign nationals who had given meritorious service to further the interests of the British Commonwealth or the Allied cause. Uniquely, Mrs Schaerer Morse had dual British/Swiss nationality.

Research is continuing both in Switzerland and the UK to discover more of this unique wartime story. The Heritage Centre will feature this in an exhibition in 2026.