Fletcher, M N

, , ,

Sergeant Morris Neil Fletcher

Family/Last name:
Fletcher
Forename(s) and initial(s):
Morris Neil
Service number:
NZ13894
Military Unit:
New Zealand Army (2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force), 2nd New Zealand Division, 26th Battalion (NZ 2nd Division), 3rd Echelon (2NZEF)
Rank when captured:
Sergeant
Place of capture:
Sidi Rezegh
Date of capture:
30/11/1941
Camp
PG 57 Grupignano, PG 148 Pol di Pastrengo / Bussolengo, Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf / Stalag 344
Data sources
Other Sources (Relative's report)
View a commemorative certificate for this prisoner

Information provided by Catherine Dodd:

 

My grandfather was Morris Neil Fletcher and he was a Sergeant in the New Zealand army — 3rd echelon, 26th battalion. His service number was NZ 13894.

He was taken prisoner at Sidi Rezegh on November 30 1941 and was then transported to Italy: first to PG37 (could be PG47?) in Udine (he has written this as Camp 37, but I can’t find any record of a Camp 37. I know he was in hospital in Udine as he was treated there for wounds he sustained at Sidi Rezegh). In early 1942, he was transferred to PG148 in Verona where he writes: “being senior NCO, was destined to become Camp Leader, first for 250 NZ prisoners then gradually increased to 1680, some of whom could not speak English.”

After the Italian Armistice, he was transferred to Stalag VIIIB Lamsdorf, where he remained until the camp was cleared and the prisoners were force-marched.

He returned to New Zealand, married Nancy Dawson from Christchurch and bought a farm outside Clinton in South Otago. He was a dearly-loved father and grandfather who was warm and gentle and funny but also, as my Dad said, “a bit of a closed book’. What happened to him in the war caused him to suffer from PTSD and (not surprisingly) he hardly ever talked about the war to his children and grandchildren. His physical health suffered too from repeated bouts of pneumonia brought on from malaria he contracted in wartime. He died 10 February 1992, aged 78.

I hope I’ve included all relevant information. I am hoping that we may be able to find some more information about his time in the Italian POW camps — it would be great if there was a photograph of him somewhere.

 

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