Only son of Cork-born wartime heroine Mary Elmes dies

Patrick Danjou, son of Mary Elmes, at the ceremony to mark the official opening of the Cork city bridge named to honour his mother, the Mary Elmes Bridge in 2019. File picture: Brian Lougheed
Patrick Danjou, the only son of Cork-born wartime heroine Mary Elmes, has died after a long illness. He was 74.
A former GP and father of three, he lived in Perpignan in southwest France where his mother had risked her life to save hundreds of Jewish people from deportation to Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War.
Mary Elmes settled there after the war and married Roger Danjou. The couple had two children, Caroline and Patrick.
Professor Ronald Friend, one of the children saved by Mary Elmes, said: “I was grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with Patrick and his sister Caroline, whose brave mother rescued my brother and myself, when we were aged two and five, from certain death.”
He and his brother Michael were among the estimated 427 children saved from deportation to Nazi gas chambers by Mary Elmes and her colleagues while they worked at Rivesaltes, a holding camp near Perpignan.
In the autumn of 1942, more than 2,000 Jewish adults and 174 children were loaded onto cattle wagons and taken from the camp to Drancy, outside Paris, and then on to Auschwitz where they were systematically murdered.
The number would have been much higher had it not been for Mary Elmes, but as her son, Patrick Danjou was always at pains to point out, she did not do it alone.
When, in 2013, his mother was posthumously named Righteous Among the Nation, Israel’s highest honour, Patrick said praise was due to many and, in particular, to Mary’s driver, Victor Samarini, who also took huge risks to save lives.

At the time, Rose Duroux, a friend of Mary Elmes, commented: “He said it courageously, forcefully and against protocol — and I recognised there the worthy heir to his mother!”
While neither Patrick nor Caroline courted publicity, they were keen to ensure that their mother’s work was recognised in her own country.
In 2016, Patrick visited Cork to accept the Trish Murphy Award from Network Ireland whose president Deirdre Waldron had nominated Mary Elmes for her outstanding contribution.
He spoke with characteristic humour about the standing ovation he received at the event, commenting that he never thought he would see the day he would receive thunderous applause from more than 200 women.
In 2019, he was deeply honoured to return to his mother’s native city for the official opening of the Mary Elmes bridge over the River Lee.
He said while his mother would not have liked the fuss, he and his family were very proud to see a bridge being named in her honour in her native city.
“I think it's better to have a bridge than a wall like some friends of ours in America want to do, and like some friends in England want to build,” he said.
His cousin Mark Elmes said the visit was one of the highlights of his life. “My side of the family had been delighted to get to know him and enjoyed his company,” he said.
As a child, he visited Ireland regularly with his mother. In later years, he was particularly happy to visit her childhood home on the Blackrock Road on the invitation of its present owner Jacinta Ryan.
On one occasion, he presented her with a book on roses that had come from the original library. (Mary Elmes and her mother were keen gardeners.)
The inscription read: “Coming home after 70 years.” Patrick is survived by his partner Marisette, his children Cyril, Xavier, and Marie Maud, his eight grandchildren, and sister Caroline.