Hi I have been given a metal prisoner of war tag stamped KR GEF LAGER THORN NR 13620 is there anyway i can find out about the owner, regt, name any help would be greatful thank you.
Interesting An Ancestry search for POW number (I have assumed NR 13620 is the prisoner number) gives the records of 2 people : J T Doherty Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Lambinowice, Poland 5674346 13620 344 21 E G Yeo Royal Army Ordnance Corps Lambinowice, Poland 7607483 13620 344 32 This seems odd to me at the moment, but I believe there are other members here who will provide further details. TD
In Stalag XXB (Malbork, Poland) there was a Alexander MacNeil 2750513 of the 1st Black Watch taken POW 16/6/40
The camp specific metal tags were reusable and could be assigned to new PoW when periodic purges or transfers to another camp took place. Consider them like the old mine tally boards. When you joined a pit you were given a locker tally - this was given to the tally man each time you went down the pit and returned to you when ended shift. If you retired/left the pit the locker tally was given to a new starter. So some tally tags stayed with the same man for years - some had a series of owners recorded. The tally tags for one pit were never taken to a new pit with some one transferring. This was how the PoW numbering system started - id documents retained against a camp metal tally - documents only transferred with the man. However as later war material shortages bit in Germany and some camps were moved wholescale id documents and tags were transferred together as long as the new camp had not already used the incoming tag number. Ross
UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Name: A McNeill Rank: Private Army Number: 2750513 Regiment: Black Watch POW Number: 15395 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: XX-B Camp Location: Malbork, Poland Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Perth Record Office Number: 16 Name: S A Williams Rank: Gunner Army Number: 907998 Regiment: Royal Artillery POW Number: 15395 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: 383 Camp Location: Hohenfels, Rhineland-Palatinate Record Office: Royal Artillery (Field) Record Office, Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent Record Office Number: 5 These 2 are shown with the same POW number, not sure of the significance or not of the NR prefix and if that relates to someone else TD
Two options for that number in UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 record set on ancestry Name: J P Shaw Rank: Private Army Number: 4758428 Regiment: Sherwood Foresters POW Number: 18603 Camp Type: Oflag Camp Number: V-A Camp Location: Weinsberg, Baden-Württemberg Record Office: Infantry and Army Educational Corps Record Office, York Record Office Number: 20 Name: E F Ovington Rank: Serjeant Army Number: 809593 Regiment: Royal Artillery POW Number: 18603 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: 357 Camp Location: Oerbke, Lower Saxony Record Office: Royal Artillery (Field) Record Office, Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent Record Office Number: 5 This looks the most likely as the wiki page for Camp 357 says that it was at Thorn until Sept 1944, when it moved to the site of the former XI-D camp at Fallingbostel, Lower Saxony. Stalag XI-B - Wikipedia Travers
