News
Collection of POW letters of a veteran of the Dieppe Raid has been donated to the Museum
A POW correspondence of Private William George Clay, a soldier in the Canadian Regiment of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, prisoner of the stalags: VIII B (344) Lamsdorf and II D Stargard, has been added to the collection of the CMJW. The donated collection includes more than 90 letters from Private Clay to his wife Amy Clay. The mementos were given to us by the POW's daughter, Susan McIsaac from Canada, during her visit to the Museum’s Łambinowice seat.
It was exactly 82 years ago - on 19 August 1942 – when Private William George Clay was taken prisoner during the Dieppe Raid, an amphibious attack carried out by the Allies on the French coast near the port town of Dieppe. The majority of the Allied forces at the time was made up of Canadians soldiers - around five thousand - of whom two thousand were taken prisoner.
At first, Private Clay was sent to Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf, from where he was transferred in 1944 to Stalag II D Stargard, where he performed forced labour at POW 419 working party. After his liberation in April 1945, he returned to Great Britain.
The given to us correspondence after being catalogued and secured by the Department of Collections and Conservation, has been transferred to the museums' storage facility where it will be safely stored.
Many thanks to Mrs Susan McIsaac for the donated letters!
Photo: P. Jędorowicz/CMJW