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| John in 1914 |
I'm doing research to find Belgian relatives of the families who helped this New Zealand Soldier after he has been captured by the Germans. If you can help me, I would be grateful.
John (Jack) Stuart Skinner fought at Gallipoli in 1914, was
invalided back to England, before eventually being repatriated to New Zealand
and discharged as permanently unfit for further service.
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| John in 1918 |
Not for him
though - he re-enlisted in 1917, got to the Western Front was captured in France in 1918 and as a POW
finished up at a place ”Wambeek”, these days part of Ternat and in the vicinity of Brussels.
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| nominal roll 1917 embarkation date: 26 July |
When the
armistice was signed, he was taken in by some Belgians who accommodated and
looked after him for some time before he was returned to England and then to
New Zealand.
His son in law, Kelvin Bremner who lives in Martinborough NZ, is very
anxious to know whether any of the families who were so good to him are still
in or around Brussels.
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| John in July 1982. He died on December 17, 1983 |
extract from his diary :
I stayed on a launch which he owned for the three weeks I was in
Brussels.
Two
other interesting families I saw quite a lot of. The first was that of a middle
aged man and woman with a young family of four of school age, all of whom could
speak English. The mother had been a friend of Nurse Cavell, and as a special
privilege one day, took me to the law courts and allowed me to sit in the seat
that the nurse had occupied when convicted for helping prisoners of war to
escape. She later paid the supreme sacrifice when
found guilty.
The
other was a wealthy Belgian family whose interests I think were in the woollen
mills. There was one daughter, Jacqueline, who had been one of the party under
Mr Stoefs at Wambeek.
I was several times at their home, a beautiful one, and was also a guest at a
welcome home dinner to the only son, a Captain in the Belgian Army, who arrived
with the Allied troops when they entered Brussels. All I had in the way of
clothes was the khaki uniform with my P.O.W. number in large letters back and
front, a shirt with no tail or sleeves, and a pair of boots much the worse for
wear. On the table was all the expensive cutlery dug up from the garden where
it had been hidden, plus a solid gold embossed finger bowl for everyone. In the
course of conversation with the family, I mentioned that many people living in
towns in New Zealand had places in the country that they went to in the summer
and at holiday time. (I had a mental picture at the time of the unpretentious
wooden places at Waitati, Warrington and Karitane). Jacqueline said that they
had one too, and produced a photo of it. A beautiful castle of possibly twenty
rooms or more surrounded by gardens and woods!!
Perhaps
the greatest event while in Brussels was the official entry of the Allied
troops ten days or so after the Armistice, if I remember correctly, headed by
the Belgians then the French and the British and the Americans, all picked men
with regimental bands etc. The ones that caught the imagination most were the
Highlanders and the shouts of “Ecosse, Ecosse” as they swung past were
deafening.
Here are some letterheads they wrote to him giving their names/address.
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| address Fernande Hartjens in Brussels |
He wrote of
his experiences in Gallipoli, France, his capture and his time as a POW in
France, and then Belgium till the armistice, and his time with the Belgian
families who cared for him after his release.
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| John with his platoon section |
He got several letters and post cards from Fernande Hartjens, some from Brussels (Ixelles/Elsene), rue Americaine 96 but also an interesting letter from De Panne, at the Belgian Coast near the French Border. They transformed two houses into a hotel and they did battlefield tours from De Panne to the Battlefields around Ieper/Ypres.
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| those houses has been transformed in a hotel. |
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| letterhead hotel des Princes from Fernande Hartjens 19/08/1919 |
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| another view on the hotel |
He received also letters from Hubert Stoefs who was helping him from te first Armistice Day in 1918.
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| letterhead Hubert Stoefs 23/01/1919 |
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| letterhead Hubert Stoefs 24/12/20 |
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| extract of the letter from Jacqueline Vanden Eeckhoudt, rue de l'abbaye 49 Brussel |
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| Letterhead used by R. Milisse and Leonard ... from Brussels but with connections in Blaton |
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| Paul Van Keer was a Belgian Soldier who wrote to him. I think he was related to one of the other families |
