The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

242813 Cpl. Alexander MacKenzie British Army Seaforth Highlanders from:Crichron Street, Coatbridge, Laranrkshire, Scotland My father, Alexander MacKenzie, was a regular in the Seaforth Highlanders and was well known as 74 MacKenzie the wooden fingered piper. He saw active service in India and Palistine etc before leaving the Army after 12 years service because my mother would not get married to a serving soldier. I was born a year after they married, when my father was recalled as he was on the Army Reserve. After reporting to Fort George (The Depot of the Seaforth Highlanders) he came home on embarkation leave before being sent to France with the 51st Highland Division as part of the BEF. The 51st Highland Division fought the rearguard action that allowed their comarades to escape capture at Dunkirk but were ordered to surrender by their CO General Fortune. He was marched through France, Belgium and Germany to Poland where he was held POW in Stalag XXA in Thorn (now Torun) Poland. He escaped 8 times being blinded when caught by the Gestapo on his last escape attempt. Because he was no further use to the war effort he was repatriated in 1945 just prior to the end of WW2. My father was taken prisoner with the 51st Highland Division at St Valery En Caux when ordered to surrender by General Fortune. He was marched to Thorn (now Torrun) and was imprisoned in Stalag XXA. He escaped eight times. He was badly beaten by the Gestapo after he was captured during his 7th escape attempt. This was to cost him his eyesight and later blind him for life. After the war, I first saw him when he was a patient at Killearn Hospital. I recognized him immediately despite have last seen him when I was only 18 months old. Immediately after the war we lived at 40 Old Shettleston Road and moved to Shotts when I was 11 years of age. Despite his blindness he started a small poultry unit at 24 Torbothy Road, Shotts where we had 60 chickens. We quickly expanded and moved to a smallholding at 1 Sharnotshields, Bonkle, where we had around 2000 chickens and our own incubation units and hatchery. He later retired to 1 Strowan Crescent, Sandyhills, Glasgow. He passed away in 1962 aged 62 and his ashes were spread around the flagpole of Fort George at his request. My Father on the right My Father - POW Work Camp My Father on embarkation leave BEF and Mother and me aged 18 months My father 2nd from right being presented to The Queen. Alexander MacKenzie Add to this record.  Related Content: Seaforth Highlanders Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Stalag 20A (312) Prisoner of War Camp Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.