“They actually competed to host the soldiers,” says Guy Girardet. “The reason Chateau d’Oex got the first contingent of British soldiers was because its letter [to the Swiss government] arrived first.”
This was more than just an act of charity: the British, French, and German governments were paying for the upkeep of their soldiers.
While no-one got rich out of Switzerland’s internee programme, Guy Girardet believes that for many hotels it made the difference, during the war, between survival and bankruptcy.
And so thousands of wounded soldiers were sent, not just to Chateau d’Oex, but to Verbier, Zermatt, Murren, and many other now well-known resorts.
The good food, mountain air, and peaceful surroundings were beneficial, but the return to health of so many young men caused a problem: boredom.
“Verbier is a tourist resort now,” points out Cedric Cotter, “but in 1916 there was practically nothing, not even a pub.”
The Swiss soon decided that parents, wives, and fiancees would be allowed to visit.
One young woman, Connie Kirkup, writes of getting lost on the long journey across Europe, and then arriving in the Alps to find her fiance Angus, well recovered from his injuries, taking part in a bobsleigh race: “My heart stood still, but oh it was great – and the English team won!”