British PoW's in the village of Avelgem after fighting on the Escaut

It's certainly a possibility, Andy. I wonder if he filed a POW report that might confirm the circumstances of his capture ? He's certainly not listed on CWGC.

 

It's on my next Kew shopping list

 

Checked the National Archives today and sadly the CQMS didn't complete a questionnaire.

 

I recently got the DCLI and Beds and Herts History so let me know if you want the pages from these histories too.

 

Hi Drew,

very interesting reading. Can you imagine the pub, with civilians and officers looking at maps. Many thanks for sharing and yes I'm interested by the other tho histories.

Peter

 

Another 2 Beds and Herts book by the same author. I thought I'd post these pages so you could cross ref any details from the other book and I suspect there may be additional details in one or the other.

 

Many, many thanks Drew for the detailed accounts! Very interesting reading.

Peter

 

Thank you all for this information, its exactly what I've been looking for. In the original photo's there is a short C/Sgt to the left. That is my maternal grandfather Ron Chisholm. An ex regular reservist recalled to the colours in 1939. There must have been some confusion as when sent from the Depot in Kingston Upon Thames, on promotion from Cpl to Sgt he was supposed to go to the 1st Bn at that rank not the 1/6th Bn as a C/Sgt. He managed to escape shortly after capture and with a small group of men followed the German pursuit if the BEF toward Dunkirk. He never made it to Dunkirk, too many Germans, so they headed south and briefly met up with 2/6th E' Surrey before their surrender at St Valery and seems to have evaded capture again as he, and five of the seven men he set out with, were evacuated from St Nazaire, the first ship after the Lancastrian. In fact they were due to board the Lancastrian when they were turned away and told to go on the next ship. On arrival in England, he went home to Bournemouth to see his wife and daughters, entirely without permission, and for that he was busted to corporal. He finished the war as a corporal, although he did make Sgt several times. Apparently whenever things were slow he decided to go home for a few days and see the wife and kids. His son, of the same name, followed him into the same regiment and later with the Queens Royal Surrey Regiment seeing active service in Cyprus and Southern Arabia.

 

My Grandfather in his pre war service

 

Sorry about that. I don't yet know how to post a photo from my PC to this forum so I put it on my FB account (which is very easy) and tried to link that. clearly it didn't work