Wartime Gift from German P.O.W. Features in New Exhibition
A new temporary exhibition for the final two months of our season presents documents and artefacts from the Gold Hill Museum Archives relating to Shaftesbury During the Second World War. One intriguing item is a handmade wooden model Spitfire, made by a German Prisoner of War from Camp 47 in the grounds of Motcombe House, to give to a local lad, a very youthful Tom Crabbe (1938-2025). The story is best told in Tom’s own inimitable style, as recorded by Librarian Ann Symons in September 2024:
I’ve brought this Spitfire up here to present to Shaftesbury Museum, which the family agreed on. It was given to me in nineteen forty-four, forty-five Christmas by a German Prisoner of War. He used to come to Iwerne Minster in the Army lorry every morning. There was about ten or eleven of them on there and they were dispersed at different farms at Iwerne Minster. And this particular chap and his friend, his mate, they worked for Mr Harry Hunt of Iwerne Minster’s Preston Farm where my dad worked as well.
And they were two nice chaps and this particular Christmas he said to my father “I’ve got something for your son Thomas.” And Dad said, “Well, that’s kind of you Henry, what’s that?” And he said, “I’ve made him a model Spitfire back at the camp at Motcombe, near Shaftesbury.” And he said, “I want him to have it and keep it.” And that’s how I came to get it. And as from that time my granny used to pay a taxi to go to Motcombe once a month and pick Henry up because he was a trusted prisoner down at the camp and he used to come to our house for lunch once a month. And he done that for the two years that he was down there.
And he was the headmaster of a school in Berlin and he could speak better English than I could. But he was a very nice friend and we thought a lot of him. And I think that’s really the end of the story, but he did tell Dad that him and his friend that was with him still together at Iwerne on the farm, they never shot a gun in anger. As soon as the British landed in France – they were on the coast there guarding some different things in this particular village in northern France – as soon as the British came – the tank came round the corner and they came out with their hands up and they were took Prisoner of War and that was the end of their wartime – they didn’t want to fight – and they were really nice chaps. And that’s the end of my story about that.
As with all our displays, this exhibition – on the landing outside the Museum Library – is free. For some items we don’t have the wealth of background detail that the late Tom Crabbe was able to provide. Perhaps somebody will recognise some of these Shaftesbury Grammar School army cadets, in an uncaptioned photograph from a wartime album? On the back of the photograph were written the names C/O L.P. Veale and Sgt Tim Corson. School Magazines for 1940 reported a very successful inspection in July by visiting Brigadier-General H.C. Stanley-Clarke, when the strength of the Cadet Corps had just passed 100. Corporal Corson was to be promoted Sergeant in October 1940, so perhaps this is a later inspection.
A Footnote about Camp 47. The parkland of Motcombe House was requisitioned during World War II for the building of a standard pattern Prisoner of War Camp, to accommodate Italian, then German POWs after the D Day Landings in June 1944. It was in use until at least 1947, when the House was leased by Port Regis School, who bought the freehold of the property including 150 acres of parkland from the Prideaux family in 1972. At some stage the contents of Camp 47 were auctioned off, as implied by this extract from our Byzant Magazine for January 2017:
A member of the public asked for our help in tracing a Second World War German POW at Motcombe Park Camp. He has a collection of Nissen huts which came from the camp and on the inside of one of them are 10 or more painted panels done by a prisoner with the initials ‘EG’. The paintings depict scenes from his homeland. The present owner is seeking help in tracing any descendants of the POW so that he might offer them these panels.
The present writer has no knowledge of whether the artist’s family was identified, and is pretty certain that no traces of Camp 47 will be found by trespassing on Port Regis property, so please keep out!
