208749 Dvr. Jack Symonds British Army Royal Army Service Corps from:Liverpool My father, Jack Symonds, was a prisoner of war in Stalag XXB. Unfortunately, he passed away on 30th December last year aged 96 and it is only recently that I began to do some further research on his wartime experiences. I guess this was prompted by the recent release of detailed information on British Army Prisoners of War 1939-1945. From this information, which confirmed his prison camp as Stalag XXB, on the Wartime Memories website there is a photograph of Harry Daniels, in which I am as certain as I can be also has a picture of my father. He is second from the right as you look at the photograph. I sent an email to Patricia Daniels (daughter of Harry). Unfortunately, the email has been returned to me as 'undeliverable', if Patricia reads this I would love to hear from you
His prison number was 15626 and he had been captured at St. Valery in France when the whole of the 51st Highland Division was captured. Father was a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. He always told us that they were relatively well looked after and was eternally grateful for the tremendous work of the Red Cross. He also told us that the reason for their reasonable treatment was that the Germans wished to have some 'model' prisons that could be inspected by the Red Cross and others in order to divert attention away from the extermination camps, which as you will know were not very far away. You can imagine how much I wish I had this information to hand when father was still alive and to be able to show him the photographs and to be able to expand what we already knew. Dad was born in Liverpool and lived there all his life.
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