P.O.W, Diaries

[Panzer 3]

Hi ,
A relative of my son in law died a couple of years ago the family has found his diaries from when he was a P.O.W, in Poland.
He was captured 1940, before Dunkurk at Amiens and the tropps were taken to Poland. He was moved to different stalags through the war. He was Pte Ken Harper D.C.L.I, B.E.F, his diaries show the camps and a lot of info that went on there. I have the privilege
to help and copy the work we are documenting it for the family and i will have a copy for my self. I have posted some pics of the dairies and his P.O.W, tags from stalag XX1.B No, 1126.
Also the addresses of the camps he was in, as we progress i can post more info. hpe you like it.
dave

[jock auld]

Nice bit of family history,

Jock

[ironcross1]

Awesome , real history there , cheers Raymond

[OKW]

Imperial War museum might be interested, but they may want to keep it.

[Panzer 3]

Hi OKW,
You are right that they should go to a museum, once they are reserched and re-written they are going to the D.C.L.I, museum in Bodmin cornwall along with his medals ect. As no one in his family are interested in keeping them, We have read and reserched the route they took to get to Poland the first march was 199.7 miles.
and then on by train they had a hard time of it.
dave.

[Patgore]

If you're transcribing the diaries, could you publish them to the Web?

Sounds as if it would be well worth the trouble.

Anyway, best of luck with the project.

PG

[OKW]

If the items are going to a museum then i would go along the loan path rather than a straight donation. Just because they have been given to a museum doesn't mean that they would stay there. Quite a few museums have sold off 'surplus' stock, whats of interest now might not be in 20years and out the door it goes. Numerous British named medals have found their way onto the market from such sources, to the surprise of relatives, maybe skipping a generation or two, who get the urge to see donated medals only to find out that they have been sold. Another thing to consider, with yet more defence cuts on the way, is if the DCLI will still be a body in the future, if they aren't joined with several other Regiments already.( Like the Glosters, what are they called now?) If theres no Regiment theres no need for its history and in the skip it goes.

[Patgore]

OKW

You're so right. Excellent point about amalgamation of regiments.

Who knows where the 83rd Foot are now? Apart from me.

And museum curators range from some of the most knowledgeable historians in their field to simple janitors who just make sure the lights are turned off at night.

PG

[Paul E]

Some good points about Museums and there disposal of medals , i can only speak of the DLI Museum but i longer encourage families to put the medals in museums either loan or gift as they will lie in some dusty store room for years with many hundreds of other medal sets that never see the light of day having been donated by families.

As far as the comment about curators goes i can only concur !!