Mellands Camp, Gorton

[Toppo]

I believe Mellands POW Camp in Gorton held many Italian's captured during WW2.     Does anyone know if a list of prisoners held at Mellands exist?     I have written to the Italian Embassy in London and the Consulate in Manchester, but these people just don't answer anything at all!!     There must be records of who was held there, and knowing who was held, may go a long way in helping to solve a family mystery.

[mrseddie]

Hi Toppo
I can say the following FHS are the best around when it comes to Italian rellies.
Wonderful people.
Good luck
http://www.anglo-italianfhs.org.uk/

[Toppo]

Thanks Mrseddie,
 
I'll give them a whirl - being as our own, and the equally pathetic Italian governments cant be bothered to help the people that pay their fat wages   

[migky]

HI, i struggled to find any info on this subject a few years back when i was trying to research my own family in the said same camp.
The family were living in Liverpool at the time and the male member was forced to go to the Gorton Camp, well so i am told.
The mother and the rest of the family were left to fend for them self and ended up moving to Manchester just after having a child.The child died within a few days of life. The mother had to make her own way back to Liverpool to bury the child.
 
Here are a  web site with little info on such camps. First one load it up and then scroll down and click on 101-250, you are looking for number 126.
http://www.kg6gb.org/prisoner_of_war_mail.htm
 
Migky

[Toppo]

Thats a very interesting read on that website Migky.     I did actually know from research it was camp number 126, but there is some stuff on there I certainly didn't know.     I've been hitting a brick wall with this thing for months.     The Italians?....well....what can I say??     I asked the Embassy in London, and all they said was write to the Consulate at Manchester.     I wrote to the Consulate, and got no answer.     Somebody said try again - but do it in Italian, because they refuse to answer if its not in Italian.     I found a translation website and wrote to them in Italian....and waited....and waited....and still didn't get an answer.     What really annoys me is not so much the refusal to acknowledge, but that there are people in the Italian Consulate collecting fat salaries for (seemingly) sitting on their hands.    From my dealings with them, I personally wouldn't pay them with chocolate buttons, but hey, who am I to call them lazy & ignorant??   

[migky]

I know what you mean about trying to find any info on them, be it from the Italian comunity or there embassy. There must have been some records some where, but where?
Also after the war many records were just thrown away as deemed not to be important or of any further use.
 
Migky 

[mrseddie]

Have you looked in The National Archives online?
I don't know if they have any records but worth a shot.
Here's the link, you may have to try various names/places to find the documents.
All the very best
MrsEddie
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/DocumentsOnline/

[migky]

there is nothing on the N.A. web site that i could find with any records of the Gorton Camp ( i did this years ago)
Migky

[mrseddie]

Sorry...
mrseddie

[Pot Shop]

I used to play in Mellands Camp in the 50s and early 60s (by 1963 I was in the army myself).

I remember it as being laid out as an Anti-Aircraft gunsite for the big guns, the 3.7's. I believe it became a PoW camp for Germans, not Italians at the end of the war when the guns were moved. We kept PoW's as labour until about 1949.

[nouv84]

Hi!
I'm Chiara and i'm italian.
My grandfather was a Pow in Melland Camp from the 1944.


I'm trying to find news about him

[KatieEm]

Hi! My dad used to live on Sandfold Lane. I wonder if you knew him…as he would have been playing around that area - at the camp - in the 50’s too. I’m doing a deep dive into family history and fascinated about everything in and around the area during that period - Thank you, Katie