大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside on behalf of Peggy Camp and has been added to the site with her permission. Peggy fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

David Camp

My fianc茅 David was a member of the TA when war broke out and he was called up right away to join 68 Medium Regiment Royal Artillery. He was first stationed at Bolesworth Castle in Cheshire. Despite some misgivings from my parents because of the war, we decided to get married. We tied the knot on October 21st 1939.

David and his Regiment were eventually sent to High Wycombe in preparation to go to France but after Dunkirk everything changed. In September 1940, the Regiment was sent to fight in Eritrea and eventually to Egypt. He fought in the desert with the regiment but had applied to join the intelligence corps when he was taken prisoner near Tobruk. I received a telegram to say he was missing and it was quite a while before I knew he had been taken prisoner. After finding this out, I immediately contacted the Red Cross to find out how to write to him and was given details.

When David eventually came home after the war, he told me that my first letter had taken two years to reach him simply because of the confusion caused by his surname of Camp. I presume the Germans or Italians mistook the name Camp for prisoner of war camp. Funny years later but not at the time!

David was held in a prisoner of war camp in Italy but managed to escape and was on the run for six months. He thought very highly of the Italian civilians who helped him and learnt to speak Italian quite well. Of course he was recaptured and then transferred to the notorious Stammlager 4B in Germany.

David worked in the camp office as he had problems with his feet, which resulted in a pension after the war. We used to send the prisoners what we could in those days and on one occasion I got my family to donate what they could so that I could make him a nice big cake. I put the cake in a large metal biscuit tin along with some other treats for him and his mates.

Unfortunately I also put a bar of soap in the tin and when it arrived, the soap had tainted the cake and it was inedible. They were not amused according to the letter I received from him.

David was eventually liberated and was on his way home. We were informed he would be on a certain train into Liverpool Lime Street station quite early in the morning. I got up early and was making myself pretty to go and meet him when the doorbell rang. I was shocked to find David standing on the doorstep having got an earlier train. He kissed me and then ran up the stairs shouting, "where鈥檚 that boy?" He was talking about our son who was born in July 1941 but who he had never seen. The rest they say is history!

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