A HEREFORDSHIRE village will bid a fond farewell this weekend to a 98-year-old farmer who came to this area as an Italian prisoner of war more than 70 years ago.

The national flag has been flown at half-mast over Shobdon’s Bateman Arms pub as a mark of respect for Guglielmo Pietro Peruffo, affectionately known as Bill. It’s thought he was the last surviving Italian farmer to have settled in this area after leaving the Presteigne POW camp at the end of the Second World War.

Following his funeral at the church of St John the Evangelist at Shobdon this Saturday, Bill’s ashes will be partly interred in the churchyard, and in Italy where he was born in 1918, though he always considered Herefordshire to be his home.

“He loved his life here,” said his grandson, Alasdair Meilson. “He had no regrets about settling here.” He was happily married to his wife, Joan for 67 years, and the couple had three children, four grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Born near Padua, Bill had been stationed in Ethiopia (then Abyssinia), Sudan and Kenya before his capture by the French Foreign Legion. He was transferred to the British Army, and found himself in South Africa aboard a British naval vessel destined for Cardiff. After a 16-day trip, and an encounter with a German U-boat, Bill arrived in Britain and was transferred to the POW camp at Presteigne.

Working on a small farm at Shobdon owned by Owen and Fred Williams, he met and fell in love with a young milkmaid, Joan Morris, who was the farmers’ niece.

“It was obviously difficult in a small rural county courting my Nan as he had been fighting for the other side,” said Alasdair. “It must have been hard to swallow for her Mum and Dad, and for the community.”

After the war, Bill returned home to Italy to find it “flattened”. Said Alasdair: “My Great-Uncle Owen sent messages asking him to come back, they got on very well.

“Although he fought on the wrong side in the war, he became part of the community.”

Bill kept in touch with other Italian POWs in the area, including the late Luigi Napolitano. “I remember walking up the yard, my grandfather and Luigi and several other farmers all talking in Italian!” said Alasdair.

His grandfather developed a strong “Herefordshire farmer’s drawl” mixed with his Italian accent, he said. “He was such a gentleman, a very gentle human being.”

Bill had been a keen darts player at the Bateman Arms, where landlord Simon Green-Price lowered the Italian flag in his honour. “You wouldn’t find anyone in the village who didn’t like him,” said Mr Green-Price.