Identity area
Reference code
Crook/E/E6/4
Unique identifier
Title
Date(s)
- 22 Dec. 1941–31 Dec. 1962 (Circa.) (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
1 folder ; 83 items paper
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Letters sent to his parents, Herbert and Hilda Crook, when a POW in Silesia, and letters sent to JAC from his parents and others. Also, various papers relating to JAC's armed service. These documents were kept in an envelope marked 'temps perdu'.
Having served with the Eighth Army in North Africa, JAC was captured at Salerno in Sep. 1943 and by Oct. was imprisoned in Stalag VIIIB (later 344) at Lamsdorf, Silesia, where he spent the next sixteen months. JAC's letters home mention his activities as a POW: teaching languages, reading Classics, playing the clarinet, taking part in musical and theatrical productions, cooking, and attending funerals. In late Jan. 1945 JAC and his fellow interns were evacuated by the Germans in the face of the Red Army's advance, and were marched to Berlin. JAC finished the war as a Sergeant in the Army Educational Corps and was discharged in Nov. 1945.