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L/Cpl. John Conway
British Army 7th Btn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
from:Stirling
My great grandfather John Conway served in the 7th Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. The pictures I have included are from a scrapbook he kept whilst he was a POW. It is currently held by the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum in Stirling Castle who were nice enough to send me the photos when I contacted them about the book. My mum always told me that John had been Douglas Bader's batman while he was a POW and looking at the dates and camps listed in the book it certainly seems possible as they were both in some of the same camps at the same time. I'm not sure when he was captured. I think he took part in the desert campaign and the song in his book seems to support this.
From his book John appears to have been in the following camps:
While he was a POW, John's brother Michael was serving with the 74th Field Company Royal Engineers. He was wounded in Normandy just after D-Day and died of his wounds 14th June 1944.- Stalag IX-C in Bad Sulza in 1941
- Oflag VI-B in Dossel, Warburg in 1942 where it is possible he came into contact with Douglas Bader
- Stalag Luft III in Sagan between 1943-44
- Stalag VIII-A Gorlitz (and possibly also C) from 1944
- Stalag XI-B Falinbostel presumably up to the end of the war
John's father and one of his older brothers, James had both joined the Argyll's in September 1914. John Snr was in his fifties but lied about his age while James had been a Territorial before the war. Inevitably John Snr was invalided out due to poor health but James was posted to France and was killed in action 6th March 1917.
Additional Information:
He was taken prisoner on the 6th of June in the town of Franleu where his unit (7th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) was engaged in heavy fighting. He was marched to the Netherlands where he was put on a barge to Germany and ended up at Stalag IXC at Bad Sulza where he was put to work doing odd jobs on a building site and the clearing old wood in a forest before being sent to work down the nearby salt mine. He later went to Oflag XXI B at Schubin for a spell where I think he worked as an orderly and also to Stalag Luft III possibly as orderly to Tony Trumble. He was later sent to Stalag VIIIA where he worked down a coal mine at Felhammer as part of work kommando 12403.
Bill Robertson
