Repatriation – who was the last POW?

Philip John Parker on 07 February 2025 wrote: I am trying to find out when the last British and last Commonwealth POW was repatriated to their home country.

Our lead researcher, Brian Cooper replied.

A big question indeed. One I think without definitive answer.

I am going to talk solely about POWs held by Germany. POWs held by Japan are not my area although some of what I say is perhaps relevant.

COFEPOW https://www.cofepow.org.uk/ would be better placed to advise on POWs held by Japan.

On 13 June SHAEF announced that all British and U.S. prisoners of war in Western Europe had been liberated with British prisoners totaling 167,844 and US prisoners totaling about 91,000. In addition they announced that repatriation had been completed by 9 June.

Liberation/Repatriation Lists are known to have existed but none have been deposited at the UK National Archives. By this I mean that the catalogue does not record any. The general view is that they are lost although it is possible that they are retained amongst the SHAEF Archives held by the US National Archives..

The War Office British Army Casualty Lists at the UK National Archives show POWs whose status changed from POW to No Longer POW. Unfortunately, the lists do not record the date of either liberation or repatriation. The lists are dated simply by the date of list generation/publication which is weeks, and may be months, after the event.

Similar lists for the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are not found at the UK National Archives.

The British Government supported by Commonwealth Governments had established search teams to track down known POWs who had not returned. As might be imagined their task with regard to the Soviet Union was beyond their powers. This work was in its early stages in June 1945. Even in 1947 efforts were still being made to seek information from the Soviet Government albeit about men whose death was suspected.

By August 1945 MPs were posing questions of the Government on the subject of repatriation.

Hansard

Repatriation

Volume 413: debated on Tuesday 21 August 1945

Mr. Turton

asked the Secretary of State for War how many British officers and men who were prisoners of war in Germany have not yet been repatriated; and how many of these are in territory now controlled by the U.S.S.R. awaiting repatriation.

Mr. Lawson

The number of British Commonwealth (excluding India) officers and men who were recorded as prisoners of war in Germany and who have not been recovered or accounted for by the Allied Forces on 11th August, 1945, is 690. All prisoners of war notified by the Soviet authorities as having been released by them have been repatriated with the exception of one officer and nine other ranks who are in hospital at Kharkov.

Other questions followed at later dates with the number not accounted for reducing.

In September the newly re-opened British Embassy in Warsaw issued repeated appeals for British POWs still in Poland to come forward for repatriation. There was a presumption in London that British POWs were ‘hiding’ in Poland for one reason or another.

Similar efforts were made in Czechoslovakia where British POWs were also believed to be.

Reports of stragglers returning from Soviet controlled territory seem to be absent in The Times, Daily Express, Daily Herald and Daily Mirror. More accurately all my ‘searches’ of online scans of these newspapers have failed to deliver a positive result.

On 3 November 1945 the Liverpool Evening Express carried the following report

I have been unable to find any confirmation of the report. I will simply say that I think it credible; if perhaps confusing prisoners of war and forced labour. The French repatriation from the east was numerically far more numerous and lagged behind the repatriation of British and American POWs unfortunate enough to be liberated in Eastern Europe.

Within a week a further report of interest appeared in the 10 November 1945 edition of the Burnley Express and News. 3598284 Private Thomas Kewin, The Border Regiment, was recorded as recently returned from Poland. He had responded to repeated appeals by the British Embassy in Warsaw for British POWs still in Poland to come forward for repatriation.

Burnley Express 10 November 1945 0002 Clip

There is another man that might be of interest.

R214044 Flight Sergeant William J. McCULLOUGH, Royal Canadian Air Force was recorded in a 2 Jan 1946 telegram from Moscow as at Odessa in American hands and that it was hoped that he would be repatriated on an American ship. He had been shot by a Russian sentry at a Polish hospital after his plane was shot down in 6 Mar 1945 near Kosy, Poland. [Source: UK National Archives AIR 46/25]

I think that if others returned to the UK reports of their return will most likely be in local newspapers. I cannot find any using Findmypast.

I have not searched Foreign Office files looking for correspondence about either the repatriation mentioned above or Private Kewin, or others, passing through either the Warsaw Embassy or the Moscow Embassy. I would suggest that you proceed this att The National Archives.

If I can be of further assistance please get back to me.