THE THORPE BROTHERS

[SAM159]

Hello from Spain. I am a new member and hope that I am posting this request in the right place.
I am looking for any service history of my two uncles, Stanley Philip Thorpe And Samuel Lewis Thorpe. I believe that they both served in the Manchester Regiment in the 2ND world war. Stanley was in the expeditionary force, and failed to get back to Dunkirk in time to be repatriated. He avoided the German army for 9 months by working on a farm as a farm labourer under the name of John Duval. When captured he served the rest of the war in Stalag V111B. Samuel was captured at the fall of Singapore. spent time in Changi as a pow. Finally I believe was sent to Japan.

[george.theshed197]

Good morning SAM159,
And welcome to the Forum from Spain.
It would seem that you are looking for information relating to two brothers - Samuel Leslie THORPE born 1916 and Stanley Phillip THORPE,born 1918 both in Manchester, the first one who served with the 1st Bn The Manchester Regiment in Singapore and the other one possibly with one of the Territorial Bns, either the 8th (Ardwick) Bn or the 9th (Ashton) Bn.
Do you have any further information for the pair so that our lads can start to investigate  for more details for you.?
George,
PS. Just remembered - the 8th Bn had been moved to Malta the week or so befiore the May 1940 Blitzkreig that resulted in the withdrawal had started - so it could only  have only been the 9th Bn he was serving with with.

[tonyrod]

HI SAM ,welcome to the forum ,I will move this  to the ww2 section, tonyrod

[rafboy]

Hi Sam and welcome from me.
I assume your Uncle Samuel came home.  Do you know your uncles service numbers, they would be a great help with getting you more information.
My father was also a 1st Bn Manchester Regiment Japanese POW captured at the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942.  I have 2 photographs of groups of POW's taken in at the same location somewhere in Singapore during the first 3 1/2 weeks after capture.  A few of the men in each photo have been positivly identified as 1st Bn men, in one is my father, he was sent to Taiwan in October 1942, in the other is Steven Cooney positivly identified by a wing tatoo on one arm, he went to Thailand on 15th March 1942.
These photos together with others that could be of interest to you are in the Photos and Postcards by Battalion section of the Forum.  If you have any photos of your Uncle Samuel I have the 2 group photos in higher resolution which I can send direct to you if you would like to see them, they can be enlarged so that the mens faces are very clear.
I will come back after posting this and add the link to the relavant page for you, there may be other posts of interest in this section, you can scroll through them by clicking as follows:
Photos and Postcards By Battalion; Far East Photos; Changi and photos from the Far East (The 2 group photos are on page number 2 which is where the sequence of posts starts).
I will also attach a list of web sites that may be of interest, I have not checked them all recently so some may not open.
Hope this helps.
Cliff

Link added:
http://themanchesters.org/forum/index.php?topic=610.15

There does appear to be a problem with some of the photos not opening, hopefully that will be sorted soon.
Cliff
   

[george.theshed197]

Hi again Sam,
I have passed the details of your uncle Stanley to Cliff of our Forum who will jelp you with his expertese on the Jap POWs ; meanwhile I have been trying without any success so far anyway to find any information re the other uncle Samuel Leslie Thorpe - in the four sets of WW2 POW records I have checked so far all I am getting is - NO Trace. Are you sure he was a POW?
All I could advise  in this case is for you to get in touch with the British Red Cross - Re-Patriations WW2.
Cheers,  George.

[rafboy]

George, I think you may have got a little confused, it is Samuel that I have helped as best I can with.  I cannot help with Stanley.
Cliff

[george.theshed197]

Hi Cliff,
I think I must have got my wires crossed on that one, I have not been to trace the possible european serving one at all, hence my response re the Red Cross.
George,