In 2006, Ray Worthington had two conversations with Vaughan Laurence Carter, a former Australian POW at Camp 59.

The two conversations were on June 23rd and June 30th. I am grateful to Ray for sharing his notes from those conversations with me for this site.

Vaughan had responded to a request for information on Ray’s father, Leslie Worthington WX4449, posted by Ray in Tobruk to Borneo, a quarterly journal of the Australian 2nd/28th Battalion and 24th Anti-Tank Company Association.

At the time of these conversations, Vaughan was 85 years old and was being treated for pancreatic cancer, but was still very alert and demonstrated an excellent memory. He served as WX11634 in the 2nd/28th Battalion and was one of the 490 taken prisoner at Ruin Ridge on 27 July 1942. [Miteirya Ridge, near El Alamein, Egypt, was known to the Australians as “Ruin Ridge.”]

Although he had not met Les earlier (Vaughan was in D Company; while Les was 8 Section, 12 Platoon, B Company), he remembers Les because they were in the same POW camp. Vaughan’s memory of Les is as a “good bloke.” He also remembers Les as fairly old—Les turned 39 in 1942, while Vaughan only turned 22 while they were in the camp at Servigliano.

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