213788 Pte. Eric Hawksley British Army 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders from:Chilwell, Nottingham Prior to WW11 my father, Eric Hawksley served in Palestine, in 1940 he was shipped out with the BEF, he was then captured at Le Tot in 1940. As the Germans were marching him to an unknown POW camp he managed to escape from the line near Doullens, after 36 hours he was recaptured (fortunately not shot).
Ten days later near Loos he made another escape, this time with success. After travelling by night to Halluin he was found by the French resistance and was looked after by a Mme. M; there he remained in hiding until Feb 1941.
Guided by Mme. M. they set out, they went through Corrie-Sur-Somme to Paris and to Bourges, there he was arrested by the Germans for trying to cross the lines without permission (obviously not realising he was English) he was fined a hundred Francs and put in prison, after two days Mme. M. obtained papers for him from the German Commandant and carried on without further incident.
They travelled from St. Amand to Marseilles to Perpignan to Argeles and crossed into Spain, he was then arrested and placed in jail at Barcelona, Mme. M. remained with him until he was taken to Madrid then repatriated to Gibraltar, on the 19th of March 1941.
All this time he was classed as missing presumed dead, until my mum received an unofficial letter stating he had been found, and then on the 16th May 1941 a telegram (which I still have) from my father to my mum saying he was on his way home.
I have in my possession a silver bracelet from Lt. Richard Broad to my father with an inscription on the back. At some time I am going to give this to the Seaforth’s museum at Fort George as they have registered an interest in it.
He then changed regiments to the R.A.O.C. at Chilwell Nottingham his home town, there he remained to finish his 22 years colour service as a WO2.
After he left the army he carried on working for them as a BIA, working in Germany and finally Whittington Barracks, Litchfield.
He never really spoke of his time in the twelve months from capture to repatriation, the information in this letter was obtained from Kew Archives.
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