#11701, Frank Bradshaw WHITE

A few days after the liberation of Paris the city's streets were full of Allied soldiers.  Andree Griotteray heard that she was to be awarded the Croix de guerre in a personal letter from General Charles de Gaulle for her work on behalf of the French Resistance movement.  Attending a party at the British Officers Club she was introduced to a tall slim smiling Englishman whose well-trimmed auburn moustache caught her eye.  She and Flight Lieutenant Frank White hit it off immediately.  As their friendship developed Andree introduced Frank to all the fun Paris had to offer.  One month after they met, Andree's brother Alain told his sister that she was to be awarded the Medaille de la Resistance for services rendered to France during the war.  Frank was intrigued by his new beau's war record and to help him understand more about what she had done Andree asked Madame Labbe to invite him to stay at Chateau d'Orion which had played such a significant part in the Resistance Movement.  In 1946 Frank was demobbed from the RAF and returned to London.   That December Andree was invited to spend Christmas at The Chantry in Slapton, Devon to meet Frank's family.  Andree returned to England several times before she married Frank in Paris on 29th July 1947.

Frank, having considerable experience in shipping and Walter Gander an accountant had founded in 1933 the business of Gander & White to provide fine art services, particularly in the field of packing, storing and transporting fine art in all its shapes and sizes.  Following Frank's death in 1966, Walter Gander's interest was bought out and Andree took over the running of the business.