POW Matthew Draper

[gill14]

Found a photo and postcard in my grandmothers things.
the photo is of a old boyfriend Matthew Draper that we think died in the war ( ww2)
With a postcard out of the POW camp Stalag XXI D.
Where can I find information I'm not a relative
thanks gill

[t mo]

hello gill
i,ve found his pow record he was a private in the durham light infantry army no 4442769  camp no 344 pow no 3885  stalag ( you,ve got more info with the camp no than the record! )  lamsdorf .
i,ve been through the army deaths and the cwgc site and nothing shows so with a bit of luck he didn,t die back then, do you have any idea where he came from
trevor

[gill14]

My grandmother came from Sunderland so I think he did as well.
Always thought he died that she then married my grandfather in okt 1946

also had a number of 3885014

gill

[t mo]

hi gill
well i,ve been back and did a check on death records from 1936 - 1950 and still nothing this was in FindMyPast so did a check in ancestry just in case of some records missing and they don,t have anything either so i,ve looked at marriages and found these for a matthew draper 1948 jul-sep wife,s name ferguson
1952 oct -dec young
1953 jan-mar middlemast
all 3 registered in durham north western none for his name came up as wed in sunderland .
nearly forgot checked in ancestry in the uk army roll of honour 39-45 and guess what no mention of a matthew draper just about every other fore name you can think of but that , i wonder if his proper fore name was something else only it is pos my own dad was bpt as leonard jack but was always called jack even by his own mum .
trevor

ps according to ancestry the pow camp was in  poland lambinowice so goes to show all records need checking or as my geographical knowledge is nil are they one and the same lamsdorf & lambinowice

[gill14]

been on Google earth. Lamsdorf is in germany under Berlin and lambinowice is in poland under Wroclaw So miles from each other.
could be that Lamsdorf was a holding camp and from there that he went to Poznan.
Here is the postcard from.
Will have to dig deeper

thanks Gill

[gill14]

found the camp it's the one in poland also a website with photo's
www.lamsdorf.com
looking into it further

[t mo]

hello gill

thanks for telling me about that site i,ve just red the history sec and it makes sad reading in parts i never realised how hard a time some of those men had back then it always appeared as if once captured they just sat out the war till liberated in the most part , but it,s obviously not always the case , it makes me gratefull that my dad had quite an easy time of it really even though he was in the reconnaissance corps and that got a bit hairy at times he told me .
will have to look in on that site now and again if they,re building it up .
best wishes
trevor

[ADM199]

My records show the same man to have been listed as Stalag XX1D Posen in 1944
Must have been transferred late 44.

With the rank of Pte he most probably was in a work camp attached to 344 and would have been in one of the winter Marches from that camp.

The March from 344 to Gorlitz started in 2 groups on the 22nd & 23rd Jan, and most arrived on 5th February. The first group was poorly equipped for the march but the 2nd were better prepared.
Five days later the march continued to Mellingen where they arrived 2nd March. Then moved on to 1XA Zeigerhain where they arrived 13th March.

In total the POW covered 570kms in very bad conditions; Snow, Frost, shortage of food lack of shelter and ill treatment by the Guards accompanying them.

Many died.

[gill14]

this is getting interesting.
We now know that his PoW number was 3885 and that he was at different camps 014 Memmingen, 344 Lamsdorf and 030 Poznan. He was a private in the DLI number 4442769
Just read an interesting picec about men taking the identity of another man so that they could escape. writing letters home and everything, so could mean he wasn't in one of the camps as well.
If he did survive all that and come back to England what became of him?