Pte. Sidney Ellis Griffiths
British Army Wiltshire Regiment
from:Walsall
This story, although there is not much of it, is for my late uncle Sidney Ellis Griffiths a private in the Wiltshire Regiment who was captured at Dunkirk in 1940. His Army service number was 5567902 and his POW number from Torun 20a (Thorn 20a) was 10575.
He died aged 79 in Bloxwich near Walsall without giving away much about his time in captivity. I know that at Dunkirk he was bayoneted in the left side of his head, face and neck, fortunately missing the jugular, he bore the scars for the remainder of his life. I also recall him telling me about a German guard nicknamed "Fingers". (Typical army humour, this guard was wounded and had no fingers on his one hand.) Uncle Sid said "He was alright and did us a few favours at risk to himself", others (guards) "were right buggers!" The march towards the end of the war was very, very hard and harrowing he said, "but we made it".
The really sad end to this story is the reaction of my grandfather, Sid's father, to the return of his two sons, my father (RAF) was the other one. When my father went to his room at home that he had shared with Sid prior to the war he found it empty of all of their belongings and on being asked what had happened to them my Grandfather replied, "I didn't think either of you would get back so I sold them". Unbelievable. I am ashamed to relay this part of the story but it is true, I wonder if anyone else has a similar tale...I hope not.
My dad told me the years of captivity affected Sid badly and he would have little to do with anyone apart from my dad and his long-time girlfriend, and later his wife, Nora. He suffered badly with his nerves for many years and developed alopecia because of it. In later years, like thousands of others, he rarely complained about his lot and as he said "We were the lucky ones, we made it". Thanks Uncle Sid'
