Tuesday, 25 August, 2009 14:57    |   Contact

Garnet Henry Dallimore

Trevor has contacted me with some information and photographs of his grandfather in the hope that someone may recognise him and be able to piece together more about his time as a PoW.

Trevor said:

"My mother died recently, so I came into possession of our family photos. One is of my grandfather in Stalag XXA, with seven other companions (the back is stamped with: M.Stammlager XXA Geprüft 51). These things are not new to me because I also have a two page report that he wrote for me (his spelling was wonderful) for a project that I did in school in 1970, not much information,just where he was captured and where he was held. I was always fascinated by his stories that I heard from him as a kid, even his rudimentry German! There is also a second photo with fourteen other soldiers, that doesn't include my grandfather, with a name and address on the back. If I can contribute to your site, please contact. His life is also mine. The funny thing is I live in Germany and I have one of his forenames."

Trevor provided the following photographs as mentioned above:

Garnet is sitting on the far right of the photo	Back of 8 man photo
This photo has no information with it.	Back of 14 man photo

I got in touch with Trevor and he sent the following information to me along with the photographs above:

"I've just spent hours reading the stories and looking at the photos. Especially from Stalag XXA, where my grandfather was held. His stories to me as a child are similar to what most of the other P.O.W.s are relating, even the long march back to Germany at the beginning of 1945. The enclosed account is something he wrote for a project i did at school in 1970, not much i'm afraid. Just his capture. (see below).

Anyway, I'm not specifically looking for anybody, but maybe my small contribution can be of help to some one else. Though if anyone does know him or of him, it would be interesting to hear of it.

My grandfather is sitting on the far right of the 8 man photo. I don't know anything about the 14 man photo, there is a name and address on the back of it, maybe friends of his.

His name was Garnet Henry Dallimore. He was in the 2nd battilion of the Welsh Guards and came from Trowbridge in Wiltshire. He died in 1980. His service and pay book says he was a P.O.W. from 24.5.40 to 23.4.45."

Here is the account that Garnet wrote for Trevor for his school project:

I was a guardsman in the Welsh Guards when France fell into the hands of the Germans. I was captured on May 23rd at St. Martin just outside Boulogne. We marched hundreds of miles through Belgium onto Luxemburg. From there some were put on barges, I was put on a train, in a cattle truck, 60 men in one truck, standing up like sardines all the time. 4 days and nights through Germany onto Poland. All the boys were very weak. We were glad to get to our destination.

We arrived at a fort on June 5th 1940. It was called Fort 11 Stalag XXA (11). Registration and photograph taken. All money, rings, fountain pens and other things were taken from us, leaving us with only our battle dress and a promise of foot clothes instead of socks. We were given a spoon, a dixie, a towel and a quarter of a loaf, that was equivalent to half a pound of bread and ersatz coffee.

I was in room 19, where there were 36 men. One man in charge of the room. I slept in the right hand corner, near the window. We slept on straw, there were no beds then. Roll call at 5pm.

We started getting used to each other and organizing systems of working. There was no medical kit, only what the boys had given from their pockets. A plague of flu came into the fort, scores of boys had sores on their legs. Our blood was very poor and out of order, to correct the balance we all used salt in our coffee.