Memorials to World War Two PoWs
And so it was that on this walk through the cemetery a chance meeting with one friend piqued my interest in some specific graves in the newer part of the cemetery, namely the headstones associated with some German men who died around the time of the Second World War. Several of these men were well-known about and new headstones had been placed in their memory, but there were half a dozen headstones relating to German men who had died, if not towards the end of the war in 1945, then a little afterwards, up until May 1947.
As it is not long since we’ve had a major anniversary of the beginning and ending of the First World War, I know a little bit about that conflict and Loughborough’s, and its people’s part in it, but not so for the Second World War. When I was first asked about these graves, I remembered that I’d seen somewhere information about a prisoner of war (PoW) who escaped from Donington Hall: it came back to me that this had been at the museum in Ashby, and on checking I realised that this event was from the First World War, so had nothing to do with Loughborough (apart from the fact that Donington Hall was once home of members of the Hastings family, who were at one time lords of the manor Loughborough), nor with the headstones in question.
I also remembered seeing something at the Shepshed watermill about a bridge being constructed by prisoners of war, but I wasn’t sure if I’d remembered this, or imagined it, nor whether this was WW1 or WW2. Looking back at my photographs of my day out at the watermill revealed that the bridge-building really had taken place, and it was during WW2, so I knew that prisoners of war must have been held nearby, in WW2.
Sure enough, a little research pulled up some very interesting information on PoW camps in the area.
Firstly, a camp a little over the border, in Nottinghamshire …
A site at Sutton Bonington, now home to the agricultural science college of Nottingham University, had been used to imprison PoWs during WW1. But was this also the case in WW2? According to this newspaper article, the Sutton Bonington site was also used as a camp in World War Two, and the article goes on to describe an escape that allegedly took place on the night of 17 September 1941, when a group of 22 prisoners dug an escape tunnel and used it to leave the camp. Most of the escapees were later found fairly close to Sutton Bonington, but a few made it as far as Chesterfield before they were re-captured. However, an article, with no attribution but with a Nottingham University URL, suggested that Sutton Bonington was only used as a PoW camp during WW1, and that the escape was made on 17 September 1917, through a tunnel which had been dug by the prisoners.
My search through contemporary newspaper reports confirmed that this escape actually took place in 1917.
And a camp just down the road towards Leicester, at Quorn …
Quorn Camp, was situated on Wood Lane, in the village of Quorn, and was numbered No.9/183, being a Base Camp, standard type. Many folk will remember the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the US 82nd Airborne Division who arrived in Quorn on February 14th, 1944 and who were based at the Quorn Camp on Wood Lane. This camp later became a PoW camp, which firstly held Italian prisoners, and later German ones, the site being vacated by 1948.
And a camp just down the road in Shepshed …
This was housed in the former Liberal Club on Charnwood Road, which is now a nursing home. At the time of its use to hold PoWs, it was a relatively new building, its foundation stone being laid in 1901 and the building opened in 1902.
Another nearby camp was at Hathern …
Hathern Camp, based off Pear Tree Lane, close to Dishley Cottage was No. 590, and probably a sub-camp of Garendon Camp which was in Loughborough. The Hathern Camp housed Italian PoWs, from about 1942-1948, after which it became the basis of what was known as the Hathern Bungalow Estate, used as housing for families, when housing was in short supply directly after the war.
On 22 May 1947, the Leicester Evening Mail carried the following report:
“P.o.W. FOUND HANGED IN SPINNEY
A 25-year-old German prisoner of war at the Stoughton camp has been found dead. He was Ernest Hilbert, and he was discovered hanging in the spinney adjoining the camp yesterday.”
I do not know why, but Ernst Hilbert has a memorial in Loughborough cemetery, one of the half a dozen that were brought to my attention on my recent walk.
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:
