My Canadian Grandad.
 

Paul, i am led to believe it happened in Canada not quite sure whereabouts though.
When my brother told me about it he said it was a relative of eric's.
The problem is im not sure if the bloke was a relation or the woman.
Here's to searching :)

Remember that Sarah said that the grandfather served in a tank corps in africa. As no Canadian tank or armoured regiments served there it is possible that;
1. he didn't serve in a tank/armoured unit
2. he did but it wasn't Canadian.
remember that, pre-CANLOAN, the Canadian Army provided a number of officers and Sr. NCO's to the British for battle training and much of this occured in Africa (Strome Galloway of The RCR served with the London Irish before returning to The RCR in time for Italy). I am not sure if the DHH CMHQ reports have something on this.

... something on this can be found in Appendix 'A' to CMHQ Report No. 92 (General Activities, Canadian Army Overseas June 1942 - April 1943) and in CMHQ Report No. 95 (Attachment of Canadian Officers and Soldiers to First British Army in TUNISIA, 1942 - 1943) ...

Cheers :D

EL Parker
 

Hi to Sarah and everyone else on this hunt !

Sarah - ref Grandad Parker as a POW...I suspect the book/list of POWs you were looking at was 'POWs of the British Army - 1939 to 1945' pub by Hayward. In it an EL Parker is listed as a Gunner (meb of Royal Artillery) - Army # 900773 - POW camp was Stalag 8B & POW # as 55136 (given to him by Germans).

If the family story is that he served with an Armoured Unit in N Africa, he was probably a member of an Artillery unit attached to an Armoured (tank) Brigade or Division. The two main contenders are probably 7th Armoured Division or 6th Armoured Division. The former fought all the way fm Egypt to Tunisia, while the latter only fought in Tunisia.

As for Upavon - this is a small village on the N edge of Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. Upavon was formally RAF Upavon, one of the first military airfields in the UK. There might have been an army camp there during the war, but I have no details. The place is still a military base to this day, now housing various bits of the Adjutant General's Directorate.

Hope these bit help

Roddy de Normann

my canadian grandad.
 

Thank you Roddy for the info you found it has been really helpful.
The book you mentioned was the same one i found at the local library.
I am almost sure this could be my grandad but again i'm not 100% sure ,so will have to do some investigating.
Going back to upavon my Grandmother was a WRAF and we think possibly she was based around the Upavon area,again i need to some investigating.
It's a shame my grandad is not alive today as he would have one great story to tell.
Thanks sarah.

E.L.Parker
 

Sarah,

This man is proving to be extremely elusive isn't he:blink:

Roddy's answer raises a few thoughts in my little tiny.

If this POW, E.L. Parker, is listed as a Gunner then it does mean that he was in the Artillery and not the Tank Corps. I would have thought that if he enlisted in Canada he would have been listed as R.C.A as against R.A, if a Corps or Regiment is mentioned.

If he was Artillery attached to an Armoured Unit, maybe an Order of Battle somewhere will narrow things down a little further.

Paul.

Re: Army Number: 900773
 

Army Number: 900773 is from the block allocated to the Royal Artillery (721001 to 1842000)

In North Africa/Italy, the Divisional Troops - Royal Artillery, for the two armoured divisions Roddy1011 mentioned were:

6th Armoured Division - Divisional Troops - Royal Artillery:

12th (Honourable Artillery Company) Regiment, R.H.A. (T.A.) - 1 June 1942 to 31 August 1945
152nd (Ayrshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 15 June 1942 to 31 August 1945
72nd Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. - 1 June 1942 to 31 August 1945
51st (Devon) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 1 June 1942 to 3 November 1944

Theatres:

North Africa - 22 November 1942 to 18 March 1944
Italy - 18 March 1944 to 8 May 1945

7th Armoured Division - Divisional Troops - Royal Artillery:

1st Regiment, R.H.A. - 24 August 1942 to 13 September 1942
3rd Regiment, R.H.A. - 24 August 1942 to 31 August 1945
4th Regiment, R.H.A. - 24 August 1942 to 21 September 1942
5th Regiment, R.H.A. - 1 December 1942 to 31 August 1945
4th Field Regiment, R.A. - 18 September 1942 to 10 December 1942
74th (Northumbrian) Field Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 13 September 1942 to 18 September 1942
97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 13 September 1942 to 1 December 1942
146th (Pembroke & Cardiganshire) Field Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 10 December 1942 to 6 November 1943
21st Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. - 21 June 1945 to 31 August 1945
65th Anti-Tank Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 13 September 1942 to 29 May 1945
15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A. (T.A.) - 2 August 1942 to 31 August 1945

Theatres:

Egypt - 3 September 1939 to 5 January 1941
Libya - 5 January 1941 to 26 February 1941
Egypt - 26 February 1941 to 18 November 1941
Libya - 18 November 1941 to 30 December 1941
Egypt - 30 December 1941 to 25 March 1942
Libya - 25 March 1942 to 21 June 1942
Egypt - 21 June 1942 to 12 November 1942
Libya - 12 November 1942 to 10 February 1943
North Africa - 10 February 1943 to 24 May 1943
Libya - 24 May 1943 to 12 September 1943
Italy - 15 September 1943 to 20 December 1943

Cheers

North Africa
 

Mark,

Looking at your post, can I read that there were no actual/complete R.C.A units in the North African theatre?

Paul.

Hi Paul;

Yes, you are correct "there were no actual/complete R.C.A units in the North African theatre"

Cheers

North Africa
 

Many thanks for that Mark.

Paul.