C & T Auctioneers and Valuers Ltd
Lot 658
Historically and Regimentally Important Uniform, Paperwork & Equipment Grouping of Major D O Faulkner Royal West Kent Regiment, Taken Prisoner of War in 1940, Made Numerous Escape Attempts and Became the Camp Locksmith, Making Keys so Storerooms Could be Opened to Steal Supplies for Escape Attempts, tunics consist of his Royal West Kent No1 dress tunic which originally was issued to another officer, with brass regimental tunic buttons, rank crown to shoulders and medal ribbons for WW2 and post WW2 service; Royal West Kent regiment officers mess dress uniform with the trousers having some moth damage; post WW2 jungle shirt with regimental slip-on rank slides and cloth formation signs; Royal West Kent regiment field officers No1 dress peaked cap with sterling silver cap badge, regimental forage cap with blue piping to the crown and regimental cap badge; various items of equipment, badges and insignia. Some of the equipment having the name of a different officer, but this was the equipment he was issued with after being released from captivity when he continued to serve in Malaya. Various items of pre-war and post war ephemera relating to him and the regiment. Fine Pre-WW2 photograph album compiled by Major Faulkner of the Royal West Kent regiment in camp and training. Many good photographs in this album showing the troops training in battle dress and steel helmets etc. All bar a couple of the images are believed to have been taken by Faulkner, a pack of negatives also are included with the lot. The most interesting items in the grouping are in what he called his “POW Bag”, these items in my opinion are of incredible historical and social importance and tell the story of his POW life, the first item is a metal handle for a suitcase, but when you look through one end, hidden inside is a tissue paper escape map, the idea being that the case handle would be broken open and then the map removed; an envelope with his name inked, “Denis”, reveals a hand written reconnaissance of the various escape routes which can be taken and gives fascinating insight into what they could do to aid their escape, one extract is as follows, “GERMANY’S WESTERN FRONTIERS – HOLLAND. Apart from VENLO area, which is closely watched, the Dutch station is not well guarded, not difficult to cross.” Later goes on to say, “In the MAASTICHT district it is dangerous to attempt to cross the MEUSE on the ALBERT CANAL, it is better to go due south rather than west into BELGIUM”. This reconnaissance notes covers Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Baltic Ports and the Swiss Frontier. The reconnaissance also covers information on Railway Travel, Travel Permits, Travel on Foot and Stowing Away. These five pages of handwritten reconnaissance would have been vital for Major Faulkner, when attempting to escape captivity. Other items in his ‘POW BAG’ include tissue escape map, silk escape maps and an interesting selection of lock picking tools and keys, which were useful to him as he was in charge of picking locks for the escape committee in the camps he was held in. A photograph taken inside a camp is included and also some un-issued WW2 German cloth insignia which he must have picked up whilst in a camp, possibly for use in a escape attempt? Overall this is an incredible grouping and with the escape reconnaissance sheets, which we have never seen before and possibly unique, a truly historic grouping. Sold by direct descent of the family of Major Faulkner. Major Faulkner’s daughter has written the following account about her father, “Like most POWs my father did not talk about his five years as a POW but he considered himself far more fortunate than those who had been Japanese POW’s. His BEF ID card is dated 2.5.1940 and he was captured on 29.5.1940 in “Godversveldt near Hazebrouk” in northern France near the Belgian border. He did say that as prisoners they were first marched through Belgium and that the locals, particularly when they halted for food and water, were unhelpful.He did talk about trying to escape several times and on his release questionnaire he mentions unsuccessful attempts whilst at Biberach and Warburg. The escape from Warburg is detailed in The London Gazette supplement no 37568 dated 17/5/1946 on page 2340 under the details for Flt Lt Peter Stevens RAFVR. He did say that he became downhearted by his failed attempts to escape and found the penalty of solitary confinement very difficult to bear. He concentrated his efforts on making lock picking tools and perfecting the techniques required so that he could help by opening (and closing) locked buildings and store rooms to obtain or examine things needed to improve their lives or for other escape attempts. He said he had to hide the pick locking tools in the wooden frames of his bed at each camp and it was always a struggle to hide anything when they were being transferred between camps. After the war when he did need his pick locking tools we would ask to see his other few POW mementoes which included the paper thin escape map and the suitcase handle which he said contained another very thin escape map within it. We were never allowed to open it up so I can only assume that is what can be seen in it. We are keeping his dog tags and his POW ID card number 547 dated 21.7.1943 for Rotenburg, his last camp but a photo of it is available. There is a set of 5 escape instructions and one refers to travel since March 1942; they are not written by him but were presumably provided to him in preparation for an escape attempt; I do not remember being told anything more about them. In the small photo of POWs my father is in the back row, second from the right hand end.He did speak about the lack of food as it was a daily problem and his questionnaire commends the Red Cross, British Legion in Switzerland and the English in the Argentine for their help with food parcels. He said they were told that they must eat the skins of potatoes as most of the goodness/vitamins were to be found just under the skin and that it was OK to eat mouldy food just as long as the mould was not orange! We were never quite so convinced by this last piece of advice but my mother would always defer to him on whether we should still eat any food that she was not sure about.In August 1980 Flight Lieutenant Roth raised issues about pay having been deducted from POWs against the issue of camp money and my father wrote to his MP about this. In his letter he says that except in the early days at Laufen there was little or nothing to buy with the camp money. His CO had been a prisoner in the first war for a short time and he told them that a proportion of their pay had been withheld but it had been returned after the war. He said this had the effect of devaluing the camp money between prisoners and that for example a tennis ball with camp money cost £200. In Biberach they had put vast quantities of spoil from at least one tunnel in the roofs of the barrack blocks and were subsequently charged a considerable sum for repairs. He was asked by the escape committee in various camps to put in requests for battle dress, particularly trousers as they were required for cutting up to make bags for carrying soil from escape tunnels. The cost of the uniform was deducted from his credits and he thought from his pay at home. Also at various times fuel for their “chip heaters” for cooking ran out and they burned camp money in order to heat food from their Red Cross parcels.
