For as long as people mark the story of Greece in WWII, Georgia Tsiamis, who passed away in February, aged 89, will always be remembered with fondness, pride and profound appreciation.

Georgia Tsiamis (nee Livanos) was 17 years old in August 1941 when she befriended a group of Allied soldiers – 18 Anzacs and five British – who had arrived by sea from Crete, near her remote village of Agios Nikolaos on the south-east tip of the Peloponnese.

The troops, escapees from Skines POW camp in western Crete following the Allied surrender, had commandeered a boat and headed north before landing near Cape Malea.

For her father Dimitrios Livanos – the region’s mayor – helping the new arrivals was never in doubt. But to begin with, Georgia smuggled food to them without her father’s knowledge, until he confided in her that he and other villagers were part of the resistance.

Soon the young Georgia and the Livanos family were helping sustain the soldiers regularly in nearby caves, and for two months she ran the gauntlet of Italian and German forces quartered in Neapolis, intent on hunting down any Allied troops on the run.

Day after day she risked her life smuggling food and clothing to the men as well as messages – sometimes plaited into her hair in case she was searched.

When eventually her brother Tassios arranged their escape using a local fishing boat, the danger was not past.

Two days after the soldiers left, Italian troops under German orders began a sweep across the Cape Malea peninsula looking for the cave and the local people they believed were still harbouring the soldiers.

With a German commander barking out orders, Italian infantrymen broke down the doors of the Livanos family home and threatened to shoot the children in the house – one by one – unless they gave them the soldiers’ whereabouts and names of those who had given them assistance.

Young Georgia, acting on impulse, grabbed a rifle being pointed towards the children, and in the melee that followed, was shot in the face and leg. Georgia’s father was beaten unconscious and jailed.

Despite the oppressors’ brutality, Georgia and the family remained steadfast, giving nothing away about the Allied soldiers or their escape.

In a final and desperate sea voyage south, the Anzac and British servicemen reached Mersa Matruh on the coast of North Africa, one week after they left Cape Malea.

Meanwhile the Livanos family, like the rest of Greece, waited for deliverance from German occupation.

After the war Georgia married a Greek soldier, Leo Tsiamis, in Athens in 1954. They were blessed with their first child, Helen, before heading to Australia where they settled in Wollongong.

Many have fond memories of their business – Leo’s Fish and Chips in West Wollongong – where both Leo and Georgia were much-loved members of the close-knit community.

She and Leo raised three children in all, and for years Georgia’s story remained untold.

She never spoke of her own bravery and rarely of the events she witnessed in 1941.

It was only when her father died, and she and her daughter went back to Greece to pack up his possessions, that Helen came across a letter written to her father by New Zealander Sergeant John Redpath – the leader of the soldiers. It had been written the night before the escapees left Cape Malea on the 9th of October 1941.

In it, Redpath acknowledged how the Livanos family’s lives had been put at risk by the soldiers’ presence, and how grateful the troops were for the generosity that had been shown them.

The poignant correspondence ended with a warning: “We appreciate the possibility that after our leaving here, some traitorous person may give you away and should this happen, our country will recognise that your loss has been suffered through loyalty to us.
“We sincerely trust that no such thing will come to pass, but that the time will soon arrive when you are all free and are once again enjoying the peace and happiness that should justly be yours.”

The letter was signed by all the soldiers who had been helped by the Livanos family.

This week Helen told Neos Kosmos: “Mum used to tell us stories about the war and the ‘Englezi’ – how they had hidden in the caves and how she found them.

“To us, they were just stories. She was an amazing storyteller. It was only when we found the letter that we understood the enormity of what she had been through.”

Fifteen years ago Georgia was recognised for her bravery at a ceremony in Wollongong when the NSW RSL presented her with a certificate of appreciation.

Three of the soldiers she saved and who had signed the letter in 1941 – the late Dr Charles Hosking, Kingsley Murphy and Jack Cole – were at the ceremony to pay tribute to her.

“We owe her our lives,” said former gunner Jack Cole – now long gone – who travelled across from Perth to be there.
“She deserves a medal for what she did, the George Cross at least,” he said.

Deniliquin farmer and veteran Kingsley Murphy told reporters that Georgia would always be a very special person to the veterans she had saved.

“If it hadn’t been for her, and others from St Nicholas, I doubt I’d be here today. She risked her life for us,” said Mr Murphy, who also passed away in recent years.

For Georgia, the ‘heroine’ tag always sat uncomfortably. She was modest to the end about her actions in 1941.
“I’m not a hero,” said Georgia. “I was afraid, but I wasn’t afraid of dying. I’ve raised a family and had a good life, who can ask for more?”

Georgia Tsiamis b. Agios Nikolaos, 24 January 1924, d. Wollongong, 22 February 2013.