I only wish he was still alive so that he could answer some of my queries.
Most of the names listed here have been transcribed from the back of Kevin's photographs. His writing is neat and clear, however questions remain.
Some times it is a matter of spelling and other times it is his use of 'nicknames.' For example, the name "Tiny Peterson" appears on two photographs. I was unable to find a single Australian soldier in Stalag 18A named 'Peterson' (in the four databases at my disposal) but I eventual found a 'Petersen.' As there was only one to choose from, I could go to the Australian War Memorial database and get his forenames. I knew he was an Australian because he was in a Australian sports team photograph. In the example above we have 'Jock' Gordon and Snow' Bailey.
There was some mis-spellings. He spelled 'Merrylees,' 'Merrilees,' although the latter is a common spelling for the same name. There were also two cases where he spelled 'Wood,' 'Woods.' He also had 'Wilmer' instead of 'Woolmer.' There were several challenges sorting out the name 'Elliott,' which can also be spelled 'Eliott' and 'Elliot.'
But perhaps the most difficult names were the common ones, such as Taylor, Smith, Jones, etc - particularly when they were accompanied by the common nicknames of 'Taffy or 'Jock.' I initially assumed that these nicknames implied they would be Welsh or Scottish (and therefore in the Pritish Army). But this proved incorrect. Several Australians wore these nicknames, perhaps because they were born in those countries and immigrated to Australia.
There were one or two names that I could not find on any of the databases. For example, the name 'Sudden' appears on the back of a photograph but does not appear on any databases that I have utilised.
Some of the names listed don't appear on any of the photos but are listed as being 10029GW POWs by Ian Brown, the British archivist who manages the Prisoners-of-War website for Stalag 18A.
POWs came and went from 10029GW. For example, Corporal Frank Fella is prominently shown in a group photograph but the database of British POWS shows that he was in POW Camp 383 in Hohenfels. For this reason there is no finite number of names who were interned in 10029GW. It may be as many as three hundred even though the capacity of the Camp was 240. There were 12 'huts' and each had beds for 20 prisoners.
For all of these issues, I am confident that my roll call is 80% accurate. Readers should contact me in the know of men who are not listed, are wrongly listed, or who are linked to the wrong photograph.
MICHAEL P BYRNE
mikebyrne02@gmail.com
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