Wilson, J

,

Sapper Joseph Sydney (Joe) Wilson

Family/Last name:
Wilson
Forename(s) and initial(s):
Joseph Sydney (Joe)
Place of birth:
Lawrence, Dunedin, New Zealand
Date of birth:
14/3/1919
Nationality:
New Zealand
Service number:
32111
Military Unit:
New Zealand Army (2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force), 19th Army Troops Company (NZ)
Rank when captured:
Sapper
Place of capture:
Crete
POW number:
24917
Camp
Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf / Stalag 344
Data sources
Other Sources (Relative's report)
View a commemorative certificate for this prisoner

From Stephanie Jean Railey (nee Wilson). 11/06/2024

I have a battalion photo taken at Trentham Military camp NZ. Date May 1940. My dad has handwritten this info on the back.

Also on the back is the name of another Sapper who is in the same battalion. His name is Joe Scragg 33959. Not sure if he was a POW.

Dad was in Lamsdorf with Flight Lieutenant Jack Lawrence. He was a British pilot and they swapped identities in Lamsdorf to enable Jack to escape from the lower security area where dad was held. He escaped, but was recaptured some time later. They both were thrown in solitary for a time. Lucky not to be shot I think, as happened to later escapees.

I have a photo of Jack meeting the PM of Gt Britain… I did have his family contacts but can’t find it in my phone now. hope I have it somewhere. They found me – sadly my dad had passed away.

Dad also spent time living with the Malliaraki family on Crete as a member of their family, he had mastered some Greek language, but…. that is where he was captured. The Germans came to commandeer pots n pans and the Greek policeman recognised dads very bad spoken Greek as foreign.. dad was arrested… the family was marched off and dad was told they would be shot for harbouring him. He lived with that until he managed a trip back to Crete at about 90 yrs old.. he met the son of the family.. (Manolis) and was mightily relieved to learn they had been imprisoned, not shot.
Had he been able to get back earlier, he would have re-united with Manoli’s mother who died just six years earlier.

[Editors note: Joe was in 2nd NZ Expeditionary Force, NZ Division.
Military Unit: 19th Army Troops Coy. Non-Divisional Engineers, Third Echelon.]

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