William Robert Fitzgerald Collis

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William Robert Fitzgerald Collis (1900 – 1975), an Irish doctor and writer worked for the Red Cross in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation by Allied troops. He was instrumental in bringing five orphaned children from the camp to Ireland in 1947, adopting two of these survivors.

He wrote play the play Marrowbone Lane in 1942 and an autobiography The Silver Fleece in 1939. The book Straight On (1947), with Han Hogerzeil, whom he later married, recounts the liberation of Belsen. Other books included The Ultimate Value (1951) about the refugee children, A Doctor’s Nigeria (1960), and To Be a Pilgrim (1975).

He was involved in establishing Cerebral Palsy Ireland.