Moray and the Bosnian war 'orphans'
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A new book tells the remarkable true story of how 21 women and children found shelter at a house in Moray from the horrors of war.
'All or Nothing – A Bosnian Odyssey' begins three decades ago in 1992 as ethnic violence engulfed the former communist state of Yugoslavia.
People were being massacred in the streets by their former neighbours amid a vicious conflict which would ultimately claim more than 100,000 lives.
Seeing and hearing about these awful scenes on the TV news, Claire Findlay and her husband Andrew decided to act.
The couple contacted a seemingly legitimate charity which was asking for foster families for Bosnian orphans.
Clare and Andrew agreed to look after two youngsters for three months at Trochelhill, their home about half a mile from Fochabers.
And then came what Clare describes as "a bit of a hiccup".
The charity made urgent contact to state the small plane bringing the two youngsters was stuck on the tarmac.
The other passengers were all Bosnian women and children who'd found shelter at a refugee camp across the border in Croatia.
But before being granted permission to fly to the UK, details would have to be provided about where all 21 passengers were staying.
Thinking it would just be for the weekend, Clare agreed on the spur of the moment to offer up her own address.
The group from Bosnia included four women who between them had eight children.
According to the charity, the other children were all orphans.
But two days after their arrival the truth came out.
Petra, a 16-year-old pupil at Gordonstoun could speak Serbo-Croatian.
The teenager was brought over to Clare and Andrew's home after agreeing to act as a translator.
When she spoke to the Bosnian children Petra discovered that none of them were orphans.
But far worse still, Petra learned that on their way out of Bosnia, they had come across a group of their friends who had left their village a day earlier.
The adults had been shot while the throats of all the youngsters had been slit.
Claire said: "Everything got turned upside down that afternoon.
"As far as we were concerned those children were not going to move from our house until they had their mothers with them."
Thankfully, lots of local people pulled together.
Toys and clothes arrived in floods, while shops provided food and Gordonstoun donated sleeping bags.
Clare said: "It was a completely batty situation, but it all worked somehow because everyone rallied round to help.
"There were literally hundreds of people in Moray who got involved and that, generally speaking, made it all go okay.
"And they were really the nicest bunch of children I have ever met."
Three weeks later and all seven of the other mothers along with four more youngsters arrived in the UK.
Six of the older children amongst the initial group travelled with Clare from Moray to meet them at Gatwick Airport.
Then, amongst other emotional scenes, the rest of the youngsters were reunited when the coach arrived back in Moray.
Looking back, Clare, who's now aged 80, said: "Everyone was in tears.
"We lived through some extraordinarily special which is indelibly printed on my mind.
"We certainly didn't set out with the intention of having so many people stay in our house – it was an accident.
"We found ourselves in the middle of something and I don't think we could have acted otherwise."
Clare and Andrew moved away from Moray a dozen years ago.
Sadly, he passed away in June 2016.
However Clare has now penned a book about the couple's experiences all those years ago.
She said: "Although it's taken me 25 years, on and off, I needed to to write it all down."
'All or Nothing – A Bosnian Odyssey' by Clare Findlay is available online at Amazon.
Clare will also be at Elgin Library from 11am-2pm on Friday, November 25.
