211006 Pte Gordon Michael "Michael" Cooper British Army Beds & Herts Regiment from:Southampton, England Gordon Michael Cooper, but known as Michael, was born in Southampton 15th December 1924. He was conscripted in 1942/43 into the Infantry (possibly the Beds & Herts Regiment) His unit was sent up to Arnhem in September 1944 to relieve the paratroops. He was captured by the Germans and taken to Stalag IVB at Mulhberg-Elbe. He features in a published photograph of the camp's 'Empire Theatre' which was sent to the Southampton Daily Echo by Sgt Albert Reith sometime in 1945.
Michael was taken out of Stalag IVB and put to work in a coalmine. On one occasion a roof collapse trapped him and a fellow prisoner underground. No rescue was forthcoming so they dug their own way out to safety. Towards the end of the war the German guards deserted their prisoners when they heard the distant sound of Russian gunfire. More afraid of the Russians than the Germans, Michael and a colleague escaped the camp and walked towards the American lines, hiding by day and travelling at night. He survived on stealing turnips and carrots from the fields.
After the war, Michael suffered bouts of mental illness; he emigrated to New Zealand in April 1951 to work in the NZ Forest Service, but returned to the UK some months later will the ill health continued. Nowadays we would recognise his symptoms as a severe case of post-traumatic stress. He lived a reclusive life, looked after variously by the NHS, his mother and his older brother, Dennis. He died of dehydration, in hospital, 9th February 1986.
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