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208452 Pte. Maurice Arthur "Reece" Butler British Army 5th Battalion Royal East Kent Regiment from:Goudhurst, Kent My father, Maurice Arthur Butler, known as Reece, enlisted at Cranbrook, Kent in the Territorial Reserve on 2nd Feb 1939. When war was declared he enlisted as Private 6287454, 5th battalion, The Royal East Kent Regiment - The Buffs. He was initially stationed at Dover, guarding the Folkstone to Dover railway tunnel although his preference was cooking so he became batman to the company commander.
His battalion left for France on the 19th April 1940 and, although they were a working battalion, they quickly became involved in conflict but it is not clear where he fought. He said, in a roughly typed story he produced many years later, “we were sent to France where we were surrounded by Jerry. Four of us got away and tried to reach the coast. We traveled by night hiding by day in woods (close to) the village of Frevent. We were captured in a wood close to the coast and taken to Lille Prison. From there on to Germany to Stalag VIIIB, from there he moved to Teshen when VIIIB became 344.”
In his belongings was a notebook titled “Poems, collected at Birkental No 36 working party and No 6”. I cannot find any reference to Birkental, so I don’t know what sort of camp this was or when he was there. There are about 18 contributors to the collection, as well as my father: - Alec Wilson,
- George Roast (Hastings),
- Drum Major A Wilson,
- Tich Crane,
- A K Nash,
- W G H Brown,
- Sgt F R Creer,
- L/Cp N Farrar,
- G R Gratton,
- Denis L Hoy,
- Sapper P T Brice,
- Gunner A Maxwell,
- William Mitchell,
- L/CplBetteridge,
- Bernard A Kettle,
- Pte McCready,
- Frank Nicolson
- Maurice A Savill
.
In his time as a POW he spent much of it at a work camp E149 at Buchenlust. Parts of this story are not clear, even though his parents kept nearly 130 letters and cards sent by him from the camp. He became Stage Manager at the theatre (The Teschen Empire) so it is likely he was at Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf, then moved to Techen when it became VIIIB in 1943, and also spent time at E149. His movements are not clear from the letters as they are all addressed from Stalag VIIIB. We have copies of the programmes for the theatre productions and many photographs.
In a very small address book he recorded the last stages of the long march:
April 22nd, Sunday. Crossed the Danube (P)
April 29 Sunday. Released by Yanks. Thank God.
May 7. On air field
May 8. Ditto. Germ plane surrendered. War over. Civvy billets
May 9. Flew to Reims F
May 10. Arrived in England at Ford nr Brighton
He went on to have a long career as a telephone engineer with the GPO. He died after a long illness following a stroke, passing away in 1978.
If anyone can help to fill in the gaps in this story I would be most grateful.
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