249855 George Michael Fowler British Army 7th Btn. Queens Royal West Surrey from:South Norwood, Croydon I can only relate what my grandmother told me that my grandfather, George Michael Fowler, was in the 7th Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment during WW1 and somewhere in France in the trenches.
The group he was with decided to surrender to the German forces before they were overrun. He spent the rest of the war in the camp and worked on nearby farms. He made friends with one of the German guards and at the end of the war when he was released, they swapped St. Christophers which I inherited and then passed on to my eldest son. The inscription on the back reads "Gott ist mein freund". He was also sent a Red Cross parcel of food etc. by my grandmother but he sent it back saying he was well looked after and my grandmother needed it more than he did as she had two young children to look after.
I am busy researching my family trees but I cannot find any information from military records of my grandfather. The above information was written on the back of a photograph of my grandfather and his fellow prisoners which he sent to my grandmother with the camp's address.
|