The final stories of the 24......
Captain Harold John Lindsay 1894–1957
Born in South Africa, Harold John Lindsay was a private in the British Army Transvaal Scottish before being promoted to Lieutenant in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps 2nd Battn.
On 10 July 1917 he was reported missing in his Nieuport at Kortryk. By 20 July he was transferred to Karlsruhe and having attempted to escape around the end of August landed in Limburg. From there on 8 November, he transferred to Holzminden and with many of the others on 19 January 1918, he arrived at Schweidnitz POW camp. During that time Lindsay attempted to escape with New Zealander George Augustus Avey several times.
The New Zealand Herald 22nd March 1919 described some of the escapades of Captain GA Avey and Harold Lindsay. They were cellmates with another Australian called Captain Clinton and all working to escape. After working on an aperture in the wall with improvised tools of sharpened down table knives, one night Avey, Clinton and Lindsay attempted their escape.
Munching on Bovril biscuits and bully beef they battled on in the snow and darkness. After they had spent three days on the run, they split up only to be caught the German patrols and returned to camp. After a stint in Holzminden they were sent to the snow covered Schweidnitz in January 1918.
No sooner were they in Schweidnitz than they banded together with other prisoners to start a tunnel through which they would escape as partners on the 19th and 20th of March 1918. Lindsay and Avey paired together. The plan was to travel in pairs the 300 miles to the Baltic. They covered 200 miles in difficult and chilly terrain trying to avoid detection by hiding in barns by day. By the ninth day they were totally exhausted and even though they had made it to the River Oden they were recaptured and returned to Schweidnitz. They were later court-martialled by the Germans and given solitary confinement after they landed in Holzminden around 6 May 1918.
Lindsay was repatriated to UK on 17 December 1918 .
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| Marriage announcement |
After the war Lindsay had left his homeland to travel to the USA and Canada where he met and married his wife Marjorie Cooper in 1931. He appeared to have remained with the KRR and was promoted to Captain as noted in his marriage announcement. He lived in Montréal until he died age 63 on 1 February 1957.
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Lt Alexander George Bartlett Patten 1894–1975
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| Alexander George Bartlett Patten |
Alexander ‘Alec’ George Bartlett Patten was born in 1894 in Brockley Greenwich. He attended Royal Military College in 1915 Alec started his service with a Commission with the 7th Dorset County Regiment, also known as the 7th (Service) Battalion. He later transferred and became a Lieutenant with the 2nd Suffolk Regiment. He was attached to the 4th (Territorial) Battalion when he was injured serving in Flanders according to the Gloucester Echo 29th February 1916. It seems he was wounded twice, once in February 16 and then again in 1916 August with shrapnel wounds. While at Hann Munden POW camp he met Murphy and Morehead and the rest in Schweidnitz.
After being recaptured post the Schweidnitz breakout Patten was involved in a prisoner swap to Holland with Captain Asquith on 13th June 1918 and was repatriated home 22nd Nov 1918.
In 1921 he retired from the army and later it looks like he immigrated to Canada to try out farming. Records show in that in August 1921 he arrived in Vancouver Island, Canada as an immigrant farmer but not long after he moved back to the UK.
In 1934 he married May Cleary and they had three children. The 1939 register shows him living Chanchonbury at Lay Brook Farm in where he settled as a pig and dairy farmer . He remained in a Commission with the Regular Army Reserve of Officers with the Suffolk Regiment until October 1945.
He died in Sussex on 20 December 1975 aged .
Captain Edwin John Dilnutt 1895–1978
Edwin John Dilnutt was the son of Charles John Dilnutt and Elizabeth Wildgoose. He was born in Streatham Wandsworth London in 1895. He commenced his service in 1914 as a Lieutenant in the 54th Trench Mortar Battery before transferring to the 7th Battalion Bedford Regiment as 2nd Lieutenant and later Captain.
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| Edwin John Dilnutt |
At the commencement of the war, he served in France and Flanders before transferring to the RFC 59 Squadron. He undertook training in flight navigation They say that the life of a flying officer is short- he flew as an observer on his first flight on 13 April 1917 and by 24 April was shot down in France while on a reconnaissance mission with Pilot Sergeant FC Smith. He went missing at Arbres on 25th of April 1917 with his family hearing about it on 14 May 1917.
Fortunately, he was not wounded in the crash and was taken to Karlsruhe POW on 28 April and then to Freiburg POW on 21 May 1917. From there he was transferred into Holzminden in November 1917 arriving with Lt Tarn Harker. Then he was part of the cohort who is transferred to Schweidnitz 19 January 1918 arriving with Avey, Atkins, French and Fisher, Phelan, Reid and Wearne. Of course, he was part of the 24 tunnel escapees, was recaptured, transferred to Holzminden. and court-martialled.
He was repatriated on 14 December 1918. As soon as he returned from captivity, he married Constance Louise Needs on 19 January 1919 and together they had two sons.
He relinquished his Commission on completion of service on 6 June 1934 from the Royal Air Force Reserve.
At the commencement of World War II, he was appointed to a Commission in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserves and in September 1939 became a Flying Officer. He stayed in the Reserves relinquishing his role in 1947. He died in April 1978.
Lt Thomas Gilford Holley 1896-1987
Last but not least is Lieutenant Thomas Gilford ‘Gil’ Holley, born in 1896 in Massachusetts USA. He started his career in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces before moving to the 23rd Squadron as an observer in the RFC. By 1916 after the Somme crusade the RFC was desperate for observers. It seems he may have sweet talked his way into the RFC. He was in the air with little training by January 1917.
He went missing in action on 2 July 1917 on the Western Front after his petrol tank was hit by machine gun fire. He crashed over enemy lines suffering a fractured ankle and dislocated elbow. He was taken to Limburg and Augustabad POW camps and one near Brandenburg where his wounds healed.
While there, Holley received a special mention “his invaluable services in captivity”. It seems there were 67 escape attempts in Brandenburg at the time. From the German perspective things were seen differently and because of his “assistance to fellow prisoners” he was transferred to Schweidnitz on 19 January 1918.
His transfer documents come with the red square which signify he is an “escaper”. It was not long before this social and gregarious Canadian was taking part in the ultimate of escapes.
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| The red pencil mark against his name on the Red Cross transfer signifies an "escaper" |
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| Holley with one of the popular old Captains J Ernest Blaikie from the Nobbs Collection |
After repatriation in December 1918, he returned to Canada in January 1919 where he eventually joined an insurance company. He was married to Elva Brown in September 1920 in Winnipeg Manitoba and returned east with their two sons living in Ottawa from 1935 to 1954 and then Calgary.
He served in the Royal Canadian Air Force throughout World War II. Holley as it turned out was a buddy with Arthur Copeland. Holley spoke fondly of his RFC/ POW pal.
Holley died in November 1987 in Calgary Alberta Canada aged 90.
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| Holley (L) with Copeland (R) compliments of the Copeland family |
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