L/Cpl Leonard Sutcliffe POW at Minden but what else?

[sutcliffe trail]

I am just beginning to put together the story of my grandfather's war service. Any further light on anything below much appreciated.

He was from Milnrow in Lancashire. There is no record for him in the Medal Rolls however. For a while we thought we had traced him as Pte Leonard Sutcliffe in the East Lancs Regiment, but he turned out to be from Burnley and born in March, not July, 1895 so not my grandfather.

As with so many men who fought and returned, he talked little about his experiences. We know he was 'at Wipers' at some stage though don't know whether this referred to a specific battle or to being in or near the town itself. He had a shell cartridge ring engraved with 'Ypres'. We know he was gassed at some stage. We know he was a POW. We don't know when he signed up or into which regiment.

The only more detailed information we have is

(a) of his being a POW at Minden. This comes from an addresses written by my grandmother and other family members on the reverse of a photo-postcards of themselves. From this we gather that by the time he was taken prisoner he was in the Machine Gun Corps. The card is (with slight variations) addressed to him as

L/Cpl Leonard Sutcliffe 8826

227 MGC

Compagnie 5, Block 1, Room 23 (17 on one card)

Prisoner of war No 68237

Gefangenenlager Minden

Westphalia

( We have one photo of him (in a prison uniform?) with another prisoner whose name is not known and presumably this was taken at Minden. We also have other photos of POWs in the camp which I will post in due course if anyone is interested.

© We also have two photos of him in his own uniform which are unfortunately not dated. One shows a Wound Strip on his sleeve. The cap badge in the other photo is not very distinct but we wondered if it might be the Lancashire Fusiliers? We know the MGC wasn't formed until October 1915 so assume that if he signed up in 1914 it would have been to another regiment: is this right?

[sutcliffe trail]

Information from my other post asking for identification of the cap badge has confirmed him to be the Leonard Sutcliffe listed in the MIC as both MGC 8826 and also Royal Fusiliers 10075. Fantastic. Now for the rest.

[kenf48]

The mic indicates he did not go overseas until after 1st January 1916. As the MGC started numbering at 3000 this suggests early recruitment into the Corps.

Ken

[Stebie9173]

The top picture is him in his Royal Fusiliers uniform and therefore probably pre-1916.

In the second picture his shoulder title says MGC and he has a wound stripe on his left cuff. This is therefore after 1916 when wound stripes were introduced, and possibly post-war.

227 MGC is probably 227th Company of the Machine Gun Corps of 29th Division.

http://www.1914-1918.net/29div.htm

Steve.

[sutcliffe trail]

Thank you both. This is all so helpful. I will follow up these leads. I expect I will be back with more questions soon.

Rosemary

[rossjthomas@bigpond.com]

Re : Lt/Cpl Leonard Sutcliffe / Minden POW

I am with a syndicate of Great War POW enthusiasts proud to announce we will shortly go to press with our book, Faces of Holzminden (www.facesofholzminden.com) about Holzminden and its forgotten Holzminden POWs. Movements are also afoot for a film on the same subject.

This photo of Lt/Cpl Leonard Sutcliffe in Minden camp is the only one we have observed showing Great War POWs in German camps with stripped prison trousers. We very much would like permission to reproduce this photo in our book and would no doubt pay appropriate acknowledgment.

Kindest regards,

Ross Thomas

ross@facesofholzminden.com

rossjthomas@bigpond.com