World War 2 - William Whinham Rutherford
 

Now here's a conundrum for John@the Drift. My brother in law's uncle was William Whinham Rutherford, who was missing presumed killed in 1940.He is commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial and was in the NF.
I've just turned up an article in the Northumberland Gazette of 26 May 1950, headed "Letter from Germany raises Wife's Hopes"
Broomhill police station had received a letter from a German national, a former policeman in a prisoner of war camp in Poland, overrun by the Russians in 1945. He had befriended two soldiers in the camp, one from East Chevington and exchanged home addresses. A photograph of William was sent to the German who confirmed it was the man he knew.
Bob Taylor MP, said he would look into the case and try and establish whether William was in Russian hands.
And that's it. I would think in 1950 it would be very difficult to get anything out of the Soviets, especially if they had moved British prisoners of war back into the Soviet Union.
But what a mystery.

Interesting, tragic and thought provoking mystery. It could be that there is more to this, imagine living with the possibility he could turn up? or perhaps he didn't want to come back for whatever reason.

Quite a few Allied PoWs liberated by the Russian troops were sent back to Russia into forced labour camps after the war , the Americans and British investigated this , there is info on net , try a google



http://stevehollier.wordpress.com/20...ver-to-return/

Leslie, many thanks for that link.....such a depressing thought that many British and US servicemen ended up in Russia with no hope of escape. I suppose a miner might have lasted a bit longer than many in forced labour camps, although having read Solzhenitsyn, I'm not sure that is a particularly positive outcome.