Capt (Dr) W.R. Crowe, No7 Cdo

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 22/02/2009 22:07:20

As a family member of Dr. Wilfrid Crowe's I am searching for veterans who may have served with him in No. 7 Commando. Dr. Crowe (RAMC) was a Canadian doctor who served with Layforce and was captured at Crete. He spent the remainder of the war in Camp XVIII A. I have all of his letters and papers from that time including letters from other officers of Layforce and hundreds of photos, mostly from the POW camp.

Should you recall meeting or being treated by Dr. Crowe I would be delighted to hear from you as I am compiling a history of his work. Likewise, if I can be of assistance to you I would be happy to help in any way.

Regards,

Tracey Croft

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/12/2007 15:59:35

Tracy,
Hello and welcome to the CVA forum.
Although I, personally, am unable to help you with your quest I'm sure you'll find someone who will.
It has to be said though, that the majority of members on the forum are not veterans but rather sons & daughters, grandchildren & nephews and nieces etc. of these brave men.
However, perhaps you ought to try an appeal in Dispatches, the CVA newsletter, which does go out to a far greater number Commando Veterans

Also, do you have Dr Crowe's Service Records? These will show all sorts of interesting details from Recruitment & Attestation, training, postings, capture & release etc - these can be applied for by visiting the link below.

http://www.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html

You say you have hundreds of photographs? It would be fantastic if we were allowed to share some of them with you. Dare I ask that you post some (or all) on the CVA Photo Gallery? There are specific albums for each Commando and also General Interest Albums.

Regards,
Nick

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 11/12/2007 16:29:34

Tracey,
Further to my previous post, please see this:

Hopefully you all received the last edition of Dispatches; our next edition should be out in January. If any members have anything that they would like to include, such as interesting articles, interesting information on events etc, or requests for information that they would like to put to our whole membership, then please email them to me ASAP. Please keep articles or requests short and to the point as we have limitations on space.
Feedback is essential to ensure that the Association produces the newsletter that it's members look forward to receiving and reading - so please send ideas and comments to the Secreatry also via email.

Thanks

[email protected]
Geoff Murray
CVA
National Secretary
07737 815194

'United We Conquer'

Regards,
Nick

Tracey,
If you look in the No7 Cmdo Album in the CVA Photo Gallery, there are already some photos, owned by Andy Mawson, taken when his father was a POW after being captured in Crete

andymawson wrote:My Dad, John Mawson (widely known as 'Jack') was a commando captured when Crete fell. I know very little about his war (except what I've learned from the published history) as he was a very stoic individual about his experiences. I have some old photos which I'd love to share with you guys - some with his commando unit and some as a prisoner of war. I am trying to find out as much about his experience as I can. I believe he was part of 7 Commando. If anyone can help out I'd appreciate it - either pointing me in the right direction toward resources - or wouldn't it be great if someone remembered him?

Nick

Hi Nick:

Thank you for your welcome and your assistance...I will definitely try to get something posted in the Dispatches ASAP. About ten years ago when I was at uni in England I obtained his service record, which, although official, naturally lacked the sort of meaty context I'm looking for...it was only a one-page summary! If it was possible to obtain more information I would try again, though.

I looked through Andy Mawson's album and did not see any subjects in the photos that matched (that would have been too lucky!)...most of the photos I have are taken in the camp where Captain Crowe was imprisoned for 4 years and during that time he was the M.O. in charge of the infectious diseases ward.

I would be happy to scan and post the photos that were taken while No. 7 was in the Middle East...there's only a few of those and the subjects are VERY hard to see, as the photos are tiny, but there are literally over 250 photos from the camp itself...I'm sure some of the men in those photos are Commandos but there are very few that are identified, so they may be more of POW interest than Commando-specific.

I can send a sampling of what I have and perhaps you could let me know what you think? If you felt it was relevant I could post them here; I also have feelers out, as it were, at the Stalag XVIIIA website and the Combined Ops site, but have not posted any photos there yet, either.

Cheers,

Tracey

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 11/12/2007 21:46:15

Tracey Croft wrote:Hi Nick:

About ten years ago when I was at uni in England I obtained his service record, which, although official, naturally lacked the sort of meaty context I'm looking for...it was only a one-page summary! If it was possible to obtain more information I would try again, though.

Hi Tracey,
It is possible that more information regarding Dr Crowe's service record may be available for release now - I recently applied for and, last month, received my father's Service & Casualty Record - it was definitely not a summary but contained many photo copies (with some pages missing) of various Army Forms - containing detailed information of his movements, areas of operation, becoming a casualty and treatment & hospitalisation thereafter, it even had when the patrol he was leading went missing (believed taken prisoner), whether & how next-of-kin were informed and when his patrol were released...
It just may be worth checking whether Army Historical Disclosures have released any more information ...

Good luck,
Nick

Hello, Nick:

That sounds promising! I will give it a try. If that sort of detail were available to me it would help to fill in some blanks--having all his letters is a great resource but they are of course discreet in terms of operational specifics!

Tracey