John Archombault. Date of Birth: 3 October 1907.
[William Francis] Hull. Date of Birth: [unspecified].
Stuart [A] Kettles. Date of Birth: 01/09/1919.
Jean Gerstil. Date of Birth: 2 September 1914.
James Douglas Appleyard. Date of Birth: 7 February 1913.
Name: Jean Lastel ? Date of Birth: 02/09/1914.
Ralph Reynolds Henderson. Date of Birth: 24/7/1914.
Marian Kotlarz. Date of Birth: 14/07/1919.
Eric John Durnford. Date of Birth: 20/12/1916.
Douglas Michael [J] Labelle. Date of Birth: 09/07/1919.
Howard Henry Lee. Date of Birth: 06/12/1916.
Rene Goenette. Date of Birth: 16/10/1915.
They were also all born in Ottawa.
They are identified in a project to catalogue The (UK) National Archives WO 416 series of individuals captured in German-occupied territory. So far catalogued are more than 110,000 of an estimated 200,000 records relating to individuals.
Read about the project in Roger Kershaw's blog post War behind the wire: The story of allied civilians in occupied Europe during the Second World War.
To date records for 572 individuals are identified in a search for Canada, 1,941 in a search for Canadian at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14541141.
The records have not been digitised and cannot be downloaded. You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you.
I found the stories of some of these men simply by Googling.
1 comment:
In 2010 at TNA I located the card prepared by the Japanese for my late husband Ed's much older half-brother, Basil Bancroft, when he was taken as a POW in Singapore. It clearly identified him showing his parents names and addresses in South Africa.
A chum put me in touch with a Japanese speaking neighbour, who translated the card for me. The most amazing detail was "ESCAPED" in large red letters. Further research has shown that he had in fact escaped in Indo-China, run by the French, which we now call Vietnam. Somehow, and we are not yet clear how this occurred, he made it across China to then-Allied Russia, and back to England. I am still working on that part of the puzzle. Cheers, BT
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