Currie Gordon (Ray)

NAME Currie Gordon Raymond (Ray)
RANK IN GREECE

Driver

ON DEMOB

N/K

SERIAL NUMBER SERVICE

9068

PRISONER

4792

UNIT IN GREECE

Reserve Motor Transport, 2NZEF

ACTIVE

 

IN GREECE

March – 28 April

METHOD OF DEPARTURE

 

Captured/surrendered at Kalamata  29 April 1941
POW CAMPS

 

IN GREECE

Presumably Dulags 185 Corinth & 183 Salonika

IN OCCUPIED EUROPE

Stalag XVIIIA, Wolfsberg;

ArbKdo 260/L, St Martins im Sumtal

 

NOTES

Source:  Son (Bruce)

“Dad was born in Timaru, South Canterbury New Zealand, the youngest of 17 children. His father and mother had immigrated to New Zealand from Ireland and Scotland. His father was a plumber, sadly he died when Ray (as he was known) was 3 years old.

After he left school, he worked at a Ford motor company garage in Timaru and when he enlisted for the army after WW2 broke out, he was sent to Burnham military camp near Christchurch for initial training and then was dispatched to Egypt via ship to Perth Australia and then onto Egypt.

He was engaged to my mother Eunice before leaving New Zealand. I was born in 1948 the 2nd of 5 children, 2 girls and 3 boys. The 2 girls were born after me and the eldest only lived for one week, the other was still born.

He never spoke too much about the war and was a POW for 4 years and 4 months. I remember asking him once why he went to war, and his reply was “to get back at those bastards that gassed his big brother Sam in the 1st WW” who came back to New Zealand and was a mess apparently.  He was basically Ray’s (surrogate) father because he had not had one.

We lived in a town called Temuka near Timaru, South Canterbury.  Ray (Dad) worked delivering mail to rural areas and did that until he retired when he was about 63 years old.  Unfortunately (he was) not in good health and passed away at the age of 67.”