WWII Veteran from London - historical search

[Marco S.]

Good morning again,

This is my second topic, created concerning the other British former POW I am looking for during my search, concerning some Allied POWs (mostly British, Australians and New Zealanders) who tried to reach the Swiss borders through the Italian Western Alps.

I am therefore trying to find all the available information on these men and their war experience, above all by contacting the still existing members of their families.
Unfortunately, as you know, the current British law on privacy does not allow to access the military archives without the written permission of a next-of-kin. And of course I can't receive this permission without finding their family.

I am trying to contact two British veterans who spent some time with partisan formations on the Alps and I hope you may kindly provide me some help or suggestion.
The soldier I am talking about was sergeant William David Lewis from London, taken prisoner at Tobruk, together with private Victor Torrig.
According to the only info I have (from file WO392/21 dei National Archives), he was a driver of the RASC, and his military number was 188777. He had been held at Camp PG 73 at Fossoli, near Carpi, Modena, Italy.

In my previous post concerning Torrig, I also provided a .pdf file with two rare pictures of them.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,635990.new.html#new

May I kindly ask your help, please?

Marco

[JaneyCanuck]

This is the sort of thing I would really like to be able to help with ... but bless your heart, you probably don't know that every second man born in Wales or of Welsh extraction is named William David Lewis.

Okay, I exaggerate. Slightly.

From 1970 (when full middle names started being recorded in the deaths index) to 2006 (the last year available), about 30 William David Lewis-s who were born 1905-1925 have died in England/Wales. (I counted them in the index at Anc'y.)

Only two of those deaths were in London: one WDL born 1906 died 1970 in Havering, and one WDL born 1908 died 1973 in Chelsea.

Of course, your WDL would not necessarily have lived in London after the war, and could still be living.

Can you do a good estimate of their age, from those photos? I'm not good at that, when it comes to men of an era when hairstyles, for instance, made all men look alike.

Have you tried a website like ForcesReunited? I've just seen a forum post there
http://www.forcesreunited.org.uk/forum/50563/1/Royal_Army_Service_Corps_WW2
that links here for the RASC:
http://www.rascrctassociation.co.uk
which has a forum:
http://rascrct.proboards.com/
so you might like to have a look at them. (But I see from an internet search for Victor Torrig, for intance, that you have tried pretty much everything already.)

Also, you might try the military forum at this site (with a link to this thread, and add a link here, if you do, to avoid duplication).

[Marco S.]

Dearest Janey,

Thank you so. Well, I din't know about the frequency of "Lewis" and "William David" in Wales... Should I start despairing? 

Anyway, yes, I already contacted the RASC and they told me that they have no records of previous members, not any way to contact their families.
I also asked an archivist to skip the National Archives at Kew to find whatever possible reference to these two soldiers, even in completely different reports or documents, in vane.

Maybe I only have to collect the mail addresses of all the Lewis families still existing and write them all. Asking if they ever had an uncle or grandpa who fought in the desert, was captured at Tobruk, prisoner in Italy and partisan in the Aosta Valley until September, 1944.
I don't know how to evaluate their ages. According to me, when looking to both the pictures, they seem between 30 and 40 years. Maybe closer to their thirties.

Edited:

Following your kind suggestion, I created a thread in the RASC forum board:

http://rascrct.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=427

Thanks again dear Janey. 

[ADM199]

Hello Marco,
                   the best place to look would be in WO 344/185/2 for Lewis.
That is unless he did get into Switzerland. Then you would have to go to www.findmypast.co.uk to find an Escape Report.
All POW "on the run" after the Armistice until 1945 seem to have been classed as being Liberated. Not has having Escaped. Even when they had been fighting with the Partisans.

What you have found in WO 392/21 means he was in that particular Camp at some time. He was probably in others up to Sept. 1943.

Service Records do not give great detail regarding a POWs incarceration. Reports made by the man himself do. Whether he was Liberated or Escaped.

Brian

Good morning again,

This is my second topic, created concerning the other British former POW I am looking for during my search, concerning some Allied POWs (mostly British, Australians and New Zealanders) who tried to reach the Swiss borders through the Italian Western Alps.

I am therefore trying to find all the available information on these men and their war experience, above all by contacting the still existing members of their families.
Unfortunately, as you know, the current British law on privacy does not allow to access the military archives without the written permission of a next-of-kin. And of course I can't receive this permission without finding their family.

I am trying to contact two British veterans who spent some time with partisan formations on the Alps and I hope you may kindly provide me some help or suggestion.
The soldier I am talking about was sergeant William David Lewis from London, taken prisoner at Tobruk, together with private Victor Torrig.
According to the only info I have (from file WO392/21 dei National Archives), he was a driver of the RASC, and his military number was 188777. He had been held at Camp PG 73 at Fossoli, near Carpi, Modena, Italy.

In my previous post concerning Torrig, I also provided a .pdf file with two rare pictures of them.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,635990.new.html#new

May I kindly ask your help, please?

Marco

[JaneyCanuck]

ADM199 was brilliant - I did not know that FindMyPast has those records. And I had some free credits. And this could be him under a typo? Different number, but too close otherwise?

W O Lewis
Driver, 5 Company Royal Army Service Corps
T/193906
Series: POW - escape via Switzerland - report
WO208 4259
Date of capture 1941-12-28
Interviewed in Switzerland 1943-11-14

Do the dates fit? That's all the info there is there.

[ADM199]

Quite simple Janey.
I created the Catalogues on FindMyPast.
My contract with them is for 10yrs.

The number Marco gives is for Dvr D W Lewis.

Brian

ADM199 was brilliant - I did not know that FindMyPast has those records. And I had some free credits. And this could be him under a typo? Different number, but too close otherwise?

W O Lewis
Driver, 5 Company Royal Army Service Corps
T/193906
Series: POW - escape via Switzerland - report
WO208 4259
Date of capture 1941-12-28
Interviewed in Switzerland 1943-11-14

Do the dates fit? That's all the info there is there.

[JaneyCanuck]

The number Marco gives is for Dvr D W Lewis.

Oh.  David William Lewis, not William David Lewis?

So my "W O" isn't likely to be him as a misread "W D", then.

Well this could help Marco, to know that the name is David William rather than William David. (The way it is phrased in the text under the photo is a little odd -- William Lewis, followed by "Davide" in quotations indicating that is what he was known as.)

No D W Lewis in those records at FindMyPast, though.

[ADM199]

The mans full name is Wilson Oliver LEWIS who's last Camp was PG 146/19 Vigivano, and he arrived in Switzerland on the 14/11/43 .

He stopped in the Camp area for about 7 weeks and then walked from Varese to Novara. In the mountains for about 11 days and through the Border on 14/11/43.

No mention of Partisans so I would suggest the man Marco is looking for didn't reach Switzerland.
The best place to look would be in the WO 344 Files.

Brian

[Marco S.]

Hello Janey and ADM199,

Thank you indeed for all your kind efforts. Much appreciated!

I am reading for the second time your posts and, please, correct me if I'm wrong.
Janey found a "W. O. Lewis", then identified by ADM199 as "Wilson Oliver Lewis". Even if he was a driver, too, I don't think he could be my POW, above all for this sentence:

"Interviewed in Switzerland 1943-11-14".

This, because both my prisoners were together with the partisans from September 1943 to September 1944. I don't know, in effect, if then they reached Switzerland or even France, maybe through the escape routes of the Val d'Isère.
So he shouldn't be "my" Lewis.
I will try again at Kew... when I'll be able to come back in England, for WO 344/185/2. I hope within 2014!

Thank you again,

Marco


Edited:

I have just had a look on Findmypast.co.uk (great site, thank you), but I didn't find a military record concerning "William David Lewis". There are many Lewis but no one with "DW" or "WD" initials.