Brigadier Claude Nicholson CB, Commander 30th Brigade

Discussion in '1940' started by Drew5233, Dec 14, 2011.

  1. kittycat1984

    kittycat1984 New Member

    My nan (still with us) tells me lots of stories from the war. One is about "Brigadier Nicholson" so I thought I'd look him up. She didn't tell me his first name so I will have to assume that he is one and the same with Claude.
    Nan lived near the Nicholson family who were wealthy landowners in Hampshire. She says that "Old Man Nicholson" (remember she was only a kid at the time) went to France with the expeditionary force during the war and was captured as a POW (so pretty sure this is the same Nicholson we're discussing here). Village gossip had it at the time that he had bribed a German guard for the use of his pistol, then shot himself. The assumption was that he had committed suicide because his high position meant he "knew too much", ie British military secrets, so committed suicide to save himself from torture. Reading about him online though, it appears he did not commit suicide for three years after his capture, which makes that motive seem unlikely. Maybe his grieving family and neighbours liked to think it was true as it meant he had died honourably protecting the country's secrets in the face of the enemy.
    To other people that are asking- there are photos of the Brigadier and his grave elsewhere on the internet :)
     
  2. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Hi dbf,

    as soon as will receive it I can send it to you. I will probably receive a non-electronic photo though.

    Stefan.
     
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  3. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1475332/


    Thanks Stefan for the attached photos of the headstone and grave at the Friedhof Rotenburg-an-der-Fulda
    You stated that "it is looked after by a Belgian Organisation for many years now, before that it was a German lady and nobody knows what the connection was. Anyway, she is not alive anymore."

    Brig. Nicholson 1.jpg



    Brig. Nicholson 2.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

  4. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Since this discussion,I have seen a reference somewhere that Brigadier Nicholson, in captivity, suffered from depression and took his own life after 3 years in captivity,I think it was, without checking his CWGC record.

    I have always thought he suffered from ill health during his time as a POW and this appears to have been generally acceptednfor death in captvity.
     
  5. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Harry,

    possible, but without his family trying to obtain the death certificate, we will probably never know.

    Stefan.
     
  6. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    I think it is possible for a third party to obtain a Death Certificate for a POW who died in captivity but the detail may be not beyond "died as a POW"

    Further information might be in the public domain such as the detail of death being ascertained through official inquiry,say in the case where a war crime had been committed.
     
  7. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Harry,

    I have tried that for an English officer shot dead being a POW in October 1941 and considered a war crime, but the actual cause of death was blackened. However, this may be handled differently by other sources.

    Stefan.
     
  8. AdeW

    AdeW New Member

    Hi I have only just joined the forum following the 75th Anniversary commemorations. My father P J Woodward was captured outside Calais in May 1940 and was in Rotenburg at the time of Brigadier Nicholson's death. He told me that Brigadier Nicholson had suffered serious depression over the loss of Calais and indeed the losses suffered by the British. He was partially very down because he had been placed in an impossible position but thought he was being blamed for the defeat. It grew progressively worse and he eventually committed suicide. My dad and other POWs I have spoken to from The defence of Calais have spoken with some bitterness about the hopeless of the position and the poor performance of the French. Dad always said that Nicholson himself was a sensitive soldier and was never given credit for a difficult job against overwhelming odds.
     
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  9. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Cheers for posting that AdeW
     
  10. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Thanks for posting AdeW.

    Stefan.
     

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