Dad's relationship to First Lord Of The Admiralty

[printmeister]

When I was a child I remember my Mom mentioning that we were related to a certain 'Viscount Alexander' who had been First Lord Of the Admiralty during the war. I always assumed that he was a distant relative, but recent research has shown that A.V Alexander's mother was my Great Grandfather's sister (apparently making him a first cousin, twice removed to me)

My father was in the Durham Light Infantry and was captured in Belgium and spent a lot of the war in a POW camp somewhere in or near the border with Poland.

My question is: If my dad's relationship to the First Lord had become known to the Germans, would there have been further implications i.e ransom demands etc? Or did that sort of thing not occur back then?

As far as I am aware, the relationship wasn't discovered and it seems doubtful that anyone from my family had ever met or had any dealings with the Alexanders.

 

[mikejee]

Printmeister
I can't give you a reference but some years ago i remember reading that the nazis separated relatives of well known people and put them in a special camp to be used for negotiation purposes. They were treated very well (for prisoners) but there were a lot of worries towards the end of the war that they might be killed off
Mike

 

[printmeister]

Printmeister
I can't give you a reference but some years ago i remember reading that the nazis separated relatives of well known people and put them in a special camp to be used for negotiation purposes. They were treated very well (for prisoners) but there were a lot of worries towards the end of the war that they might be killed off
Mike

Thanks for the reply Mike,
Unfortunately, my dad never spoke much about his prison experience. It was only a few days before he died in 2001 that he said anything about it. It didn't sound as if he had been kept anywhere separate.
He mentioned being fed what they called 'grass soup' and 'ersatz coffee'.
He also told me the camp number, which (as I hadn't started doing any family research) I never had the sense to write down and have now forgotten.

They were liberated by the Americans at the end of the war.

I seem to remember him saying that he had to serve extra time in the army to make up for the time he spent in the POW camp.

 

[ladywood]

Thanks for the reply Mike,
Unfortunately, my dad never spoke much about his prison experience. It was only a few days before he died in 2001 that he said anything about it. It didn't sound as if he had been kept anywhere separate.
He mentioned being fed what they called 'grass soup' and 'ersatz coffee'.
He also told me the camp number, which (as I hadn't started doing any family research) I never had the sense to write down and have now forgotten.

They were liberated by the Americans at the end of the war.

I seem to remember him saying that he had to serve extra time in the army to make up for the time he spent in the POW camp.

You might try the National Archives at Kew, in London.
[I managed to follow an uncle with his regiment, battalion and even company to the day in which he was killed in action in France in 1918].
You can get help there and access to original military documents.
You will need to get a readers card to do any research which you can get there, but you will need some ID, best to ring them first and tell them what you are trying to do, and see if they can help you.
I'm pretty sure they can.

ladywood

 

[printmeister]

You might try the National Archives at Kew, in London.
[I managed to follow an uncle with his regiment, battalion and even company to the day in which he was killed in action in France in 1918].
You can get help there and access to original military documents.
You will need to get a readers card to do any research which you can get there, but you will need some ID, best to ring them first and tell them what you are trying to do, and see if they can help you.
I'm pretty sure they can.

ladywood

Thanks ladywood

I'll give this a try when I get a chance to get down there!