Searching for an Italian POW - can anyone help?

[JayneT]

Hi, I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I’m looking for more information on Vittorio Bonneci (the spelling is unknown it may be Bennici or Bonnechi).

Vittorio was an Italian prisoner of war at at Castlerankie Camp number 64 (aka Castle Rankine Camp) at Denny, Stirlingshire, Scotland around about the year 1945.

Would anyone know of any records in TNA that would help us find out more about him? I’m wondering if there are any records for POW Camps here in the UK still in existence.

There’s a page on TNA (the National Archives) which says they don’t have much information about prisoners held by the British. They suggest contacting the Red Cross.

We’ve tried the International Committee of the Red Cross, but sadly, they say they have no record of him.

There is a Vittorio Bonnechi on a collective list of Italian POW on this page – but nothing to link any of them to a particular camp.

Does anyone have any ideas about whether any information for POW camps here in the UK exist, and if not what other line of investigation I could try?

Many thanks...Jayne

 

[Gillian]

I wish I could help you, Jayne. I, too, have wanted to know more about Italian POW camps in the UK, not because I have any connection with a prisoner, but because my Dad was briefly commandant of the Italian Labour Battalion at Merrythought near Penrith (then in Cumberland). The POWs built and furnished a chapel and in gratitude presented him with an illuminated address in which they "ask our Lord to reward the love of English Catholics who gave them to our chapel through the mediation of the Commandant and to give them and him His blessing." The above wording is exactly as it appears on the address. I've never been able to find out anything about the camp. The site nowadays houses the Veterinary Laboratories Agency.