South Yorkshire Times February 3, 1951

Helped Marooned Koreans

Kilnhurst Man’s Story

A starving woman and 20 sick children huddled in a dilapidated hut with the temperature below freezing. They had been abandoned many weeks before by North Korean troops and were clothed in rags.

A landing party from a naval cruiser went ashore on the apparently uninhabited Island off Inchon, Korea, and stumbled across this tragic group. One of the party, Leading Cook Kenneth License, a former Kilnhurst boy, recorded the incident in a letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. License of 55, Dudley Road, Eastbourne.

He wrote “It was pitiful to see the suffering of these poor little mites. To think the temperature was below freezing and they had no fire. They were clothed in rags and all the children’ were ill.”

The landing party did all  they could for them, returning to their ship and bringing back food and clothing, while a working   party felled trees and collected enough firewood to last them for several days.

The response to an appeal for gifts from the crew was remarkable, and many toys and presents which the sailors had bought in Japan for their own children were pressed into, the outstretched hands of these castaways. The ship left to the sounds of Cheerful laughter.

Born at Eastbourne, Kenneth was evacuated to Kilnhurst during the war, and attended Kilnhurst Council School. He has a sister, Mrs. R. Whaley, living. at 112 Victoria Street, Kilnhurst and a brother, Mr R License at Mexborough.