Excerpt from an E-mail sent by Carolyn Morrisey

Thanks for your reply.  You are most welcome to use the photo. Perhaps I should send a better copy.  The one I sent was crooked and not cropped very well.  It was just the first one I found.  My father's name is Robert (Bob) Baird. He died in 1994, before, unfortunately, I became interested in his wartime experiences.  So it has been a hard slog finding all the details.

The photo is not dated but he arrived at Wulzburg on approximately 21st May 1940 and was at Tost by October 1941. (I have a concert programme dated 23rd June 1941 from Wulzburg - a P.G.Wodehouse play by a strange co-incidence, Wodehouse having been an internee at Tost, and mention of the new-comers from Wulzburg taking part in a football match and darts competition in October 1941 is made in a copy of the "Tost Times" newsletter.) 

In November 1943 Tost was evacuated and the remaining inmates transferred to Giromagny in France. Many of the seaman had already been sent to Marlag Milag by that time.  In late August 1944 they were again moved this time to the Marlag Milag complex, arriving there on 2nd September 1944. Liberated 28th April 1945 and Dad arrived in England 17th May 1945.

Several of the men in this and other photos show men in army-type uniforms though Wulzburg was only for civilians.  My research revealed that many men, especially merchant seamen whose ships were sunk, had no spare clothes and in the early days, before the Red Cross had matters in hand, these men were issued with old French or Belgium uniforms.  In later photos at Tost and Giromagny there doesn't seem to be anyone wearing these uniforms.

The man standing at the extreme right, next to my father, is a musician called Tommy Reilly. He was studying in Germany and was captured in 1939.  Tommy (a Canadian) became quite a famous harmonica player after the war.  He died in 2000.  A search of the internet will bring up quite a bit of information about him.  The man with the glasses, sitting directly in front of my father, was also a musician called Frank Still.  He and my father became great friends and Frank was his best man when Dad married in 1945. Frank and Tommy both helped produce camp concerts at the camps.  (I have several programmes from various camps and also photos.  My Dad was in a few plays - usually dressed as a woman!)

As a matter of interest, in the Wulzburg concert mentioned above, one of the players was Giles Romilly, a nephew of Winston Churchill.  In the play he had the role of a woman, and he used the costume to stage an escape from the camp.  He was caught and was then taken to Colditz where he was regarded as a "Prominente", because of his famous relation. The story of this escape from Wulzburg is recounted in Romilly's book "Privileged nightmare "

I have a great deal of information about most of these camps - including a complete list of inmates from Tost in 1940.  So if you would like any concert programmes, photos, Red Cross reports etc, let me know.  I'm happy to share any of it. 

I also have the memoirs of a man called William Duncan who was the Camp Leader in Wulzburg. (His son lives in Australia.) 

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