212375 Albert Henry Emery British Army Royal Army Service Corps from:Dover, Kent My father, Albert Emery, joined the Royal Army Service Corps in 1934 and served with them for 14 years. His first posting was to Jerusalem and later he served in Egypt, Malta and Gibraltar. In 1940 his company returned to England where they formed a new company attached to the Royal Engineers for building airstrips. They went to Helencourt, but when the German tanks went through the Maginot Line, Albert and his company were caught between Dunkirk and Boulogne. After many adventures and lucky escapes, he ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Torun, the old capital of Poland. Albert spent many years in Stalag XXa, from which camp I have several copies of "Prisoner's Pie", a small magazine which the prisoners used to compile and have printed in Thorn, Germany. I also have some concert programmes from Stalag XXa, with names of cast characters. Maybe someone will recognize a relative's name: - John Westcott,
- Tommy Bagley,
- L. Pritchard,
- A. Smith,
- T. Hicks,
- H. Churchill,
- L. Rusby,
- James Patrick O'Keefe,
- P. Joughin,
- L. Jennings,
- M.A. Dean,
- J. Chambers,
- J. Foster,
- Sgt. Maj. Curtis,
- A. Smith
- Jimmy James who played Cinderella in the pantomime of the same name
. My father passed away in 2001, and like many other prisoners of war did not talk much about the war years. Fortunately in 1974, a local newspaper printed Dad's story over a 5-week period and I learned more from that than he ever wished to disclose to the family. They were trying times, but the prisoners managed to retain their sense of humour and make the most of a bad situation. God bless them all!
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