Names in my Grandfather's war diary, Lamsdorf: 3 Coldstream Guards, etc.

As part of searching my family tree, I have been looking into my grandfather's military past, including time in the coldstream guards and as a POW in Stalag 344.

I've come across his war diary from his POW days, which he apparently never spoke about, apart from to joke about how most of his comments were about the lack of food! In the back, there are several names of what appear to be military men as they all have numbers next to them. I would like to know if any of these seem familiar to anyone as they must have had some sort of meaning to him to write them in his diary.

The diary is marked 1944 on the front and he mentions each place they passed on a march starting at Lamsdorf which was often 30 km a day, stopping in churches etc from january to march, with then a gap and a single "flew home" comment in april which I would assume to be his liberation! I'm wondering if this is the "death march" that I've seen mentioned. If anyone would like more details I'd be happy to share pictures of the diary, and he has a couple of photos, including a large group one stamped with stalag 344 on the back, he mentions leaving 8A and arriving at 9A which I would imagine are parts of POW camps.

He was in 3rd battalion cold stream guards and went to Palestine in 1936-39 and from his medals I can also see he went to africa (I believe, Egypt).

If anyone has any more information about his battalion I'd be grateful.

My grandfather is Alfred Thomas and the number he gives is 30702

The other men listed (may be slightly different spelling, his handwriting is tricky to read) are:

G Heathcote 55143

Doyle 55255

W Causius 28201

R. L Evans 17634

C. I Ranswick 28282

W Robinson 33267

E Goole 10343

W Robbins 31127


I've found doyle and heathcote on a thread about Grenadier guards that were also POWs at Lamsdorf.


[edit by dbf: title to include camp/regiment]

 

Hi and welcome to the forum NG93, good luck with your research.

David

 

Hi,

Welcome to the forum

My father served 3rd CG Jan 1937 till his capture in Libya December 1941. He is seated left in my avatar in Palestine 1938.

Have you obtained your gf service records from RHQ, CG, Wellington Barracks?

You could look for his POW post liberation questionnaire at the National Archives - members here offer a look up service.

Keep an eye on the International Red Cross (ICRC) website. They are part way through digitising WW2 POW records for free internet access - as they did for WW1 papers released to internet Aug 2014.

Try and order a copy of the book "No Dishonourable Name" by D. C . Quilter ( Captain 2nd CG) from your local library. It is an informal history of 2nd & 3rd CG 1939/45 with loads of photographs.

The official CG WW2 history by Howard & Sparrow is also worth having sight of.

http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001589032

Good Luck

Steve Y

 

Hi,

Do you know the date your father was captured?

Cheers
Andy

 

Thanks for the responses, I haven't requested any documents yet, but I'll be looking into it, I've heard of the wellington barracks as a family member sent a picture in there so we have letters from them and a contact, so maybe I'll get in touch.

I've been asking for pictures from family and my grandmother (his wife) has dug out two old photo albums, they have lots of photos from his time in the army, some from after the war, when he was in korea and nigeria, but there are several marked with germany, and some from palestine, I'm in the process of transferring them to the computer, so I'll upload them here soon. I hope people who knew these men get in touch as they may be able to identify them in his pictures.

He was given an mbe later on in life, and I know this isn't really ww2 but I'm wondering how I'd go about finding exactly why he was given it, I've only got the medal, no paperwork or anything, his war things were split between his children when he died so I'll have to do some digging around and see if I can find anything else. Thanks again!

 

This has been really helpful, thank you!

 

NG93,
I have a little bit of information about four of the men from your list:

COUSINS William Gunner 805442 Royal Artillery originally enisted in 1930 and then re-enlisted in 1940.

EVANS David Lewis Gunner 790227 Royal Artillery enlisted in 1929.

O'TOOLE Eric Vincent Driver 137237 RASC
Born : 8/4/1919
Died : 4Q 2002 Birmingham

RENWICK Cecil Imison Pte. 6025357 Essex Regiment
born : 23/6/1912
died : 3Q 1990 Carlisle

The Chelmsford Chronoicle 4/12/42 reports that he is now a POW.

Guy

 

My grandfather is George F Heathcote otherwise known as Fred to us and he is the grenadier guard in your grandfathers book. Sadly he passed away in 2009 and didn't talk about WW2 but he too wrote a diary whilst a POW. I would be very interested in seeing the picture you have and I'm happy to share information of his diary too. I hope this helps!

 

Hi and welcome to the forum Heathcote27


David

 

Hi, I'd be really interested in seeing the diary or a transcription of what's in it, I am in the process of scanning his old photos and his diary. He has a lot from before the war, but there are only a couple from during the war, mainly from lamsdorf. I have a few that are kept with his medals, that I've already got on the computer, I wonder if your relative is in one of these? (My grandfather is the one in the middle in the first photo)

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:29181]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:29182]