Lydiard POW Hospital Camp Guards

This rare photograph shows two British World War II military guards outside the Lydiard Park POW Station Hospital Camp.

John Whittaker (R) had been injured in the D Day landings, on the 2nd wave at Sword Beach. Following his return to the UK he was sent to Lydiard Park to guard German POW officers. Originally from Yorkshire John met and married local girl Dorothy Ina Love of Hook and Lydiard became their home. In a strange twist of fate their first house together was in one of the POW huts that Swindon Corporation had converted into dwellings for local families.