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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: Claire64 on Monday 27 January 25 21:41 GMT (UK)
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A friend has sent me this photo. His mum apparently wrote regularly to a POW called Brian Daniel McLuskie who was a POW in Stalag VII B. His name is on the back, and her name and address, and it has been stamped with the official purple stamps saying it was an authorised photo. I have researched him but my questions are:
The lady he was writing to lived in Yorkshire, and he was born in NZ and served with the NZEF, and was captured in Crete. There is no obvious connection between these two people, and we don't know which one he is on the photos. There are two copies. Would there be some kind of "penfriend" scheme?
Also, the uniforms - any clues there? I have no idea if all the men were from NZ, or their ranks
This photo intrigues me and we'd love to find out more.
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Oooh how intriguing. Without doing any delving, and with no knowledge of the movement of NZ troops, I am wondering if he and your friend’s mother might have met up in the UK? I know there were a lot of Canadians and Americans in the UK.
Does your friend know what his mother did during the war years? I would look at her movements and then try to find out if any NZ troops might have been training or billeted nearby.
If there was a pen pal scheme that could well be how they met, but there could be more to it than that and that might also be worth chasing up.
The reason I suggest that is that this reminds me of what my father in law wrote about in the diaries he kept during the war. He was always meeting girls at dances and a couple used to write to him. His friends seemed to do the same.
Does your friend have any of their correspondence which would give clues as to their relationship?
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Men of the New Zealand Army trained and flew with the RAF in the Battle of Britain.
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Claire, you say you have researched Brian.
Do you have his service records?
Did he return to NZ after the war?
Have you traced him or his family forward? If you can locate and contact descendants or other relatives, they may be able to identify which one of the men he is.
Presumably you’ve already seen this:
https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C138235
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Did you notice that the chap front row second from the right is wearing a pinky ring? Possibly the one far left front is as well. I assume this means they are well to do? (They look it) ;)
Of no significance, but the chap to his right is wearing a white shirt whereas the other are wearing (presumably) khaki shirts.
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He was a gunner with the 4th field regiment. Enlisted in Wellington. Occupation motor body builder.
https://digitalnz.org/records/41554418
Grave marker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/221607860/brian-daniel-mcluskie
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My father in law was an NZ er, he ended up in the Navy. He was in the Volunteer Naval Reserve, a large group of them went to train for airforce. He failed one of the exams and reverted to Navy.
ANYWAY. When he was in Liverpool someone (no one is sure now if it was a relative or a friend) suggested he go to a relatives house for a meal. And that dear reader is how he met my mother in law.
She met several servicemen that way and used to write to all of them (famously putting the wrong letter in the envelope on one occasion).
Looking in the newspapers (i thought there might have been advertisements for penfriends) there is this wedding https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-share/0db976e1-77f4-4e7a-bf06-1233218249e3 where a fellow P.O.W suggested he write to this girl he knew. So it could be a similar connection.
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As an aside, the address on the above Cenotaph record is wrong - it should be Nevay Road, not Bevay Road.
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My father in law was an NZ er, he ended up in the Navy. He was in the Volunteer Naval Reserve, a large group of them went to train for airforce. He failed one of the exams and reverted to Navy.
ANYWAY. When he was in Liverpool someone (no one is sure now if it was a relative or a friend) suggested he go to a relatives house for a meal. And that dear reader is how he met my mother in law.
She met several servicemen that way and used to write to all of them (famously putting the wrong letter in the envelope on one occasion).
Looking in the newspapers (i thought there might have been advertisements for penfriends) there is this wedding https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-share/0db976e1-77f4-4e7a-bf06-1233218249e3 where a fellow P.O.W suggested he write to this girl he knew. So it could be a similar connection.
Great story. I don’t know if my father in law and his friends were typical, but most of them seemed to have a few girls on the go at the same time, and similarly, the girls had numerous boys. They disliked the flashy American servicemen because they always seemed to get the girls. ;D
There were many dances organised for the service personnel and many pub visits and much imbibing of alcohol, loads of socialising - so they could have met in person anywhere, hence my suggestion of trying to trace your friend’s mother’s movements.
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Thank you for the replies.
My friend's mother was 20 in 1945 and he thinks she worked in the local Steelworks here in Yorkshire. He has no other correspondence, and doesn't think they ever met. I gave him the link to try and get this man's service record to see if that would give any clues. I came across some interesting Pathe News clips of New Zealanders training in England. I seem to think they were mainly in the South of England, especially those sent here when there was a real threat of invasion.
The newspaper article about penfriends marrying was fascinating.
I did notice the "pinkie rings" and wondered at their significance, if any?
The men all look very smart and happy.
The photo would have been taken pre 1943 when Stalag VIII-B was renamed 344 Lamsdorf (the stamps on the back are for Stalag VIII-B). He was captured in 1941. I found his POW questionnaire at Ancestry but it didn't really add anything to what I already knew.
He only appears on 11 public trees on Ancestry and some of those are duplicates. He does appear to have married and had a child. No obvious family links to England. Going backwards, his family line is from NZ then Scotland / Ireland / Sweden.
I will update if I hear anything else
Are there any uniform experts here?
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There should be some uniform experts here Claire. I’m not sure if uniform identification would help you in any way, but hopefully there might be a clue or two there. The trouble is that a lot of the uniforms look very similar. These men are obviously “dressed up” rather than in combat type uniforms, so I’m not sure of the significance of that. Maybe propaganda if they were happy looking well dressed POWs?
If your friend believes his mother lived and worked locally, investigating Brian’s movements via his service record would be the next move to see if he spent any time in Yorkshire. If she ever know or meet Brian it wouldn’t be surprising if the family knows nothing about it.
It might be worth contacting the public tree owners.
I’m sure that it would have been encouraged for girls to write to servicemen to lift their spirits so the penpal idea makes sense.
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Did you notice that the chap front row second from the right is wearing a pinky ring? Possibly the one far left front is as well. I assume this means they are well to do? (They look it) ;)
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In NZ these are called signet rings and are not the preserve only of the wealthy and not only for men. While my dad did not wear one or any ring, some of his cousins/brothers did and sisters/girls also got signet rings around 13 years, as I did. These were worn either on the little finger or third finger on the right hand.
At the time there were not the extreme of class/e wealth in NZ as there are now. There was a large what you'd call now, struggling middle class or lower MC from the 1920s on and these look as though they would be contemporaries, including immaculate dress, of my Dad's.
Most secondary schools both public and private had army training schemes/territorials, boarding establishments and many of the first volunteers were from this background. My Dad drove 60 miles to the nearest recruiting centre the day after war was declared to volunteer but was held back as he occupation as Secretary of a dairy factory was held to be essential. He was overseas a year later.
I think you'd find that these men were well educated, ATC trained and I guess they themselves would be hesitant in assigning themselves to a class. It was generally not a thing and was a point of pride and difference here in the 'colonies'....
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I know what you mean about the signet rings shanreagh. I used to have one when I was a child.
I was thinking more about how upper class wealthy men wear them, often engraved with initials or their coats of arms. Our current King Charles wears one.
I was surprised to see servicemen wearing something like this, as I would have thought jewellery would be a no no, but that obviously was not the case.
Brian, the man in question, was a “motor body builder” which sounds like a blue collar occupation. All the men in the photo look very smart.