More memorials to World War Two PoWs
It appears there were over 1,000 Prisoner of War camps in Britain, and quite a few of these were in Leicestershire. Many are listed in this article and associated databank (2020) which includes the following:
o Barkby Camp, Barkby Lane, Leicester, No.616 (previously a heavy anti-aircraft battery)
o Farndon Road Camp, (Harrington Camp), Farndon Fields Farm, Market Harborough, No.49, (German working camp, standard type/caravan site)
o Garendon Park, Loughborough, No.28
o Gaulby Road, Billesdon, No.94 (German working camp, standard type)
o Hathern Camp, Pear Tree Lane, Hathern, No. 590 (farmland)
o Knightthorpe Camp, Loughborough, No.28 (German working camp)
o Old Dalby Camp, Old Dalby Lane, Melton Mowbray, No.613 (large RAF depot with huts converted to accommodation)
o Old Liberal Club, Charnwood Road, Shepshed, N0.152 (German working camp)
o Quorn Camp, Wood Lane, Quorn, No.9/183 (Base camp, standard type)
o Scraptoft, Thurnby, Leicester, No.4 (Base camp)
o Shady Lane, Stoughton, Leicester, No.167 (Base camp)
There is, however, some debate as to whether or not Knightthorpe and Garendon were actually the same place: Garendon Hall was originally used as the headquarters for local munitions, but both seem to be known as Camp 28, with the main camp being towards the south of the estate lands.
A report in the Leicester Evening Mail of 6 October 1947 carried a report of the death of Peter Leugner. He was born on 17 September 1902 in the Ukraine, and died on 4 October 1947. Leugner was found hanging in a room at the Scraptoft PoW camp. The article says:
“It is understood that he was due for repatriation.”
Leugner has a memorial stone in Loughborough cemetery.
Mr Tempest Bouskell, the coroner for South Leicestershire, pronounced that Schubert had committed suicide whilst the balance of his mind had been temporarily disturbed, and passed on his sympathy to Corporal Schubert’s fellow prisoners.
Schubert has a memorial stone in Loughborough cemetery.
“A German prisoner-of-war, Baumann Hubert, died suddenly at the Quorn Camp yesterday. The body was removed to the Loughborough mortuary and the facts reported to the Coroner for North Leicestershire.”
Listed as Hubert Baumann on his memorial stone, Corporal Baumann was born 27 October 1924, died 11 August 1947, and has a memorial stone in Loughborough cemetery.
“COMEDIAN
HANGED HIMSELF BECAUSE HE WAS LAUGHED AT.
A German
giving evidence at a Loughborough, Leicestershire, inquest yesterday on a fellow
prisoner of war who hanged himself at a camp said that the dead man had
complained that other men in his working party made too much fun of his acting
on the camp stage. He was a comedian.
Other
prisoners said that the dead man, Sargeant Herbert Bruhn, 29, of Hamburg, had
been unhappy for the last two weeks – they didn’t know why.
A police
witness said he found no suggestion of either foul play or bullying. Recording
a verdict that Bruhn hanged himself while his mind was disturbed, the coroner
said it was difficult to understand the mind of a German, particularly a
prisoner.”
Sergeant Herbert Bruhn, was born 28 January 1916 in Hamburg, died 16 September 1945, and has a memorial stone in Loughborough cemetery, but I have no idea which camp he was held in, nor in which camp he died.
The following report appeared in the Sunday Post 1 April 1945:
The report continues with a list of misdemeanours, perpetrators, and punishments, in which we find the following:
“Franz Franke and Helmut Engel – for refusing to work as directed with a labour gang – 60 days.”
I believe Private
Helmut Engel was born 30 April 1926 in Berlin-Neukolln, and died in Ankle Hill camp
at Old Dalby, in Melton Mowbray, on 22 August 1947. The camp, which as well as housing over 3,000 soldiers, housed around 300 PoWs, during WW2.
Dr Karl Theodor Reuter, was born 24 March 1914 in Herdecke, Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, and died 11 December 1946 in Leicestershire, in the Thurnby Camp at Scraptoft.
Corporal Leonhard Rademacher was born on 24 May 1910 in Monchengladbach, died on 17 September 1946 in Garendon Park/Knightthorpe Camp, No.28, in Loughborough. He has a memorial headstone in Loughborough cemetery.
It will be noted from the death dates found on the memorial headstones that the majority of these eight people died in Britain after the end of the Second World War. There are likely to many and varied reasons why they still found themselves in Britain, rather than returned to their homeland: according to this article, published on the occasion of VE Day in May 2020, some stayed and integrated themselves into the British way of life because they had made good friends, or had fallen in love. Other reasons may have been that conditions in Germany were very difficult, and there was a delay in repatriation, but also perhaps because the British government resisted sending them home as the country was short of workers. Indeed, the final German PoW returned home as late as 1948.
 |
| The bridge at Shepshed watermill built by PoWs from Garendon Hall |
 |
| The bridge at Shepshed watermill from a distance |
 |
| Pear Tree Lane, approach from Derby Road |
 |
| Site of the Pear Tree Lane PoW camp |
 |
| Site of the Pear Tree Lane PoW camp |
 |
| Site of the Pear Tree Lane camp |
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:
