Stalag Luft III - need help figuring out a name

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Incredibledisc, May 12, 2016.

  1. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Thanks as always for your help TD - you may stand down for the evening. I’ll pass those details onto the SL3 Facebook group and see if any of the experts there can pick a winner form those three,
     
  2. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    This would be 149527 F/O Hilary Clayton Lewis, born Edmonton (UK, not Canada) 1921. Taken prisoner when Lancaster ED947 of No. 57 Squadron was lost on ops to Cologne 8 July 1943. POW at Luft 6. A Sergeant (pilot) at the time he was commissioned Pilot Officer 10 September 1943 and purged to Luft III.

    57-1939 - 57 & 630 Squadrons_Association

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Thanks for helping out. My great grandad was also a prisoner at Stalag Luft III for a while - that’s him in my avatar. The photo I posted is from his YMCA logbook, I suspect that he may have been acting as orderly to the officers who’s names and addresses he wrote down.
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Have looked through all the pages of the 39 Reg for the 'village' of Rownhams, Southampton, but cant find a house name or surname that would anywhere near match

    Trouble is the address's given might not be their home ones - could be digs or whatever

    :sleepy:

    TD
     
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  5. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Superb work Alieneyes. Thank you!
     
  6. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Yeah I figured that from some of the other entries that had c/o on them. I have a copy of the published POW lists that the IMW put out in the 1990s but that only covers the British Army - RAF and Commonwealth men were listed in separate volumes but I’ve managed to get quite a few thanks to forum members
     
  7. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    I have this feeling your No. 8 may not be an airman but an Army man serving as an orderly.

    I went through the extensive list of Bomber Command POWs in "Footprints on the Sands of Time" as well as here. Nothing even close.

    I've also looked at the nominal rolls I have from Luft III and Belaria and where everybody went in January 1945 (Lubeck, Luckenwalde and Moosburg) and still nothing, hence my thought that he may not have been RAF.
     
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  8. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    You’re supposed to be asleep!
     
  9. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    While I have learned quite a bit about POW camps since embarking on this journey I had assumed that officers and other ranks would be housed separately. Would this make home a sort of live-in batman? I will have a look through my records of OR POWs and see if I can find him as I’d been working on the assumption that he was an officer.
     
  10. Des4664

    Des4664 New Member

     
  11. travers1940

    travers1940 Well-Known Member

    I see the list in post 35 has a couple of well known names:

    Colin Gerald Shaw "Hoppy" Hodgkinson
    He crashed while serving with the Fleet Air Arm in March 1939 & lost a leg, but returned to active flying with the RAF in 1942. Taken POW 1943 & repatriated 1944.
    His autobiography Best Foot Forward is a good read.
    Colin Hodgkinson (RAF officer) - Wikipedia

    Robert Kee
    The journalist & TV news reader, who wrote of his time as a pow in the book A Crowd is not Company.
    Robert Kee - Wikipedia
     
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  12. travers1940

    travers1940 Well-Known Member

    I have read that at Stalgluft III not all POW's were airmen, so for name no 10 in post 35, I offer:

    Name: R W McG Furnival
    Rank: Serjeant
    Army Number: 2928615
    Regiment: Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
    POW Number: 95761
    Camp Type: Stalag
    Camp Number: VIII-C
    Camp Location: Konin Zaganski, Poland
    Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Perth
    Record Office Number: 16

    He is also shown as below In WO392 POW Lists 1943-1945
    Description: 1: Imperial Prisoners of War Held in Germany or German-Occupied Territory: British Army

    Probate Calenders show a possible death of him as:

    William Roy McGarry Furnival, of Southsea, Portsmouth, Hants died 11th October 1989

    An online (I always treat with caution) tree for the above has the two POW records attached to it & also shows his birth as 1916, & that by 1960 he was a detective Assistant Superintendent in the Police in Malaya.
     

    Attached Files:

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  13. GeoffMNZ

    GeoffMNZ Well-Known Member

    Auckland War Museum online Cenotaph details.
    https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-...l=0&from=/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/search
    Probably in the 25th battalion (from Wellington & 3rd echelon) and captured at Sidi Rezegh late Nov 41 (nominal date POW 13th December 1941) in Italian camp PG 57 so probably went PG66 to PG52 to PG57 to Germany.
    Cheers
    Geoff
     
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  14. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Nice work! That’s another mystery man identified. Thanks for your detective efforts.
     
  15. DMFF

    DMFF New Member

     
  16. DMFF

    DMFF New Member

    Hilary Clayton Lewis was my mother’s first cousin. He was a Doctor of Physics and, as mentioned, a teacher and lecturer. Sadly later in life he contracted polio, which left him in a wheelchair. He remained unmarried and died on 11 June 1992. He is buried in Pinner New Cemetery, Middlesex. I have seen his RAF log book, with the mission from which he did not return denoted in red ink.
     
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  17. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Nice to hear from you on this thread. Always a pleasure to make contact with the relatives of men my great grandad spent time behind the wire with.
     
  18. DMFF

    DMFF New Member

    Sydney V Fountain? The bit in before Fountain could be another initial (E?, I?) or maybe just a flourish. Look at the 'a' in the word Road, and compare it with the one in Fountain.
     
  19. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Eventually identified him as Flight Leftenant Sydney V.C.Gorton.
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2020
  20. Incredibledisc

    Incredibledisc Well-Known Member

    Here is a spreadsheet with all of my research so far. I transcribed every name and address and then cross-referenced with available POW resources. Still a work in progress.
     

    Attached Files:

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