Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Corporal M. Bessette, Welch Regiment, who was captured at Benghazi on 29 January 1942 and held Prisoner of War, firstly in Italy and then Austria where, on 15 April 1945, he escaped and successfully evaded recapture until the end of hostilities

1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals; Korea 1950-53, 1st issue (22514319 Cpl. M. Bessette. R.Tks.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, unnamed as issued, good very fine (6) £180-£220

Maurice Bessette was born in 1918 at Windsor, Ontario, Canada and was a merchant seaman prior to his arrival in the U.K. and his subsequent attestation the same year on 11 July 1939 for the Welch Regiment. Embarking for the Middle East with the 1st Battalion, Welch Regiment, he was captured at Benghazi on 29 January 1942 and later incarcerated at P.G. 65, Gravina (1 April 1942 to 13 July 1943), P.G. 57, Udine (15 July 1943 to 8 September 1943) and more permanently at Stalag 18/A, Wolfsberg (10 September 1943 to 29 March 1945) where he was also engaged in farm work at Muttendorf. In April 1945, with the Russian Army already in Vienna, Bessette and his fellow P.O.W.s in Stalag 18/A were hurriedly moved further west to the Markt Pongau camp in the Salzburg redoubt. Here, on 15 April 1945, Bessette effected his escape and after two days travel back eastwards was offered food and clothing by a farmer in Muttendorf, presumably a contact established there during his period of farm labour. There he remained sheltered until the cessation of hostilities.

In 1947 Bessette was employed as a Civilian Clerk with the British Army of the Rhine and he later served during the Korean War with the Royal Armoured Corps.

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