I received from my friend Brian Sims this morning Jack Young’s official repatriation papers, which Brian had copied during one of his research sessions at the British National Archives.

Here are details from the four-page report:

Leslie John Young
Service number 7901430
Trooper, 4th Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment

Date of interrogation: August 10, 1944

Date and place of capture: June 17, 1941, Sidi Omar

Date and place of final escape: September 9, 1943, Sforzesca Pavia

Date of arrival in Switzerland: October 27, 1943

Brief circumstances of capture: put out of action by heavy artillery firing at point-blank range, evacuated tank and were then surrounded by enemy tanks.

Where and when imprisoned, and how employed:

Tripoli German working camp, July 1941–January 1942, employed loading convoys, camouflaging dumps

59 Servigliano, February 1942–June 1943

146/18 Sforzesca, June 1943–September 1943, employed in farming

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A note on the back of this photo reads, “Switzerland New Year 1944.” Jack Young is in the middle, kneeling on the snow with the child.

Trooper Leslie John “Jack” Young, at one time a prisoner at Camp 59 in Servigliano, escaped to Switzerland in October 1943. Read “Leslie ‘Jack’ Young Home from Switzerland.”

Jack’s daughter, Lyn Jones, wrote to me this week, “I managed to scan in some photos from Switzerland, the first one says New Year 1944.”

Many of others say just 1944. Jack is in most of the photographs.

“He seems to have acquired a saucy striped tie which he is wearing in a couple of the pics,” Lyn said.

“Wouldn’t it be great if someone else recognises their own father on one of the pictures?

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This photo of Leslie “Jack” Young appeared on the front page of the North Beds Courier to mark the trooper’s return from Switzerland where had been confined since escaping from Italy in October 1943. The caption reads:

“Returned.—Trooper L. J. Young, of Sandy, a returned prisoner-of-war, receiving a cheque from Mr. W. G. Braybrooks, Chairman of the Sandy Services Gift Fund.”

This studio portrait appears to be of Jack Young with members of his tank crew before their service in Africa. Jack is seated at right. Note the Royal Tank Regiment badges on the men’s black berets.

I heard this past week from Lyn Jones, who e-mailed me from the UK.

She said, “I am writing to tell you about my father Leslie John (Jack) Young (7901430), who was a prisoner at Camp PG59 in Italy. He was in the 4th Royal Tank regiment and was taken prisoner by the Germans on 17 June 1941 near Sidi Omar. After working for the Germans in Tripoli he was sent by boat to Sicily in 1942 and later to the camp near Servigliano.

“I have written accounts from newspaper articles written about my father on repatriation, of some of the things that happened there.

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