Rutherford, L B
Private Lloyd Bruce Rutherford
From: Bruce W Williams (originally Rutherford)
Date: 26 November 2015
Subject: Lloyd Bruce Rutherford
My father, Lloyd Bruce Rutherford, was a private (B-37683) in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry (Canadian). He was captured at Dieppe and held prisoner at Stalag VIIIB until January 1944 when he was transferred to Stalag IID. I believe he was liberated in April 1945.
I’ve included a couple of photos. One of Dad taken in Aldershot, England in 1945 and the other is a page from his wartime diary that appeared in an auction catalogue. His wartime diary came up for auction in 2006 and my family have been trying to track it down since we became aware of its existence in 2012.
Post from my Facebook:
“In 2006 Dad’s P.O.W Logbook came up for auction at a London auction house specialising in coins, tokens, medals, militaria and paper money. Unfortunately, I only found out about it in 2012. At that time, I contacted the auction house requesting they pass on (to the winning bidder) a letter from me explaining who I was, what the item meant to me and asking if he/she would consider selling me the log… book (or possibly allow me to photograph the pages). Sadly, either the auction house couldn’t or wouldn’t discuss the matter with me – I will try again.
Anyway, the auction catalogue description read: “A scarce Second World War P.O.W’s “Wartime Log” (as gifted by the Y.M.C.A.) appertaining to Corporal L. B. Rutherford, Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, who was captured in the famous Dieppe raid in August 1942, comprising a most interesting record with numerous cartoon drawings, poems and inserts, the latter including several camp photographs, the reverses stamped “Stalag IID”, usual pale blue covers, spine lacking, several old photographs sometime removed but contents otherwise good.”.
The attached photo is of one of Dad’s drawings from his P.O.W Logbook (I don’t have anything else). The manacles in Dad’s drawing relate to the fact that the hands of Canadian prisoners at Stalag VIIIB were bound every day from morning parade until the evening parade for a period of 14 months as a German reprisal for alleged Allied mistreatment of German prisoners during the Canadian raid on Dieppe. Initially cord was used, until sufficient handcuffs were supplied.
Although during most of his time as a POW Dad was held in Stalag VIIIB (near Lamsdorf in Poland), Canadian prisoners from the Dieppe Raid of August 1942 were transferred to Stalag IID (Stargard) from Stalag VIIIB in January 1944. Stalag IID was liberated by the Soviets in mid-April 1945.
Suggest an improvment to this record