Vickers, Thomas Douglas (Oral history)

British officer served with 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 200th (Guards) Bde in North Africa, 1/1942-6/1942; prisoner of war in Campo PG 21, Chieti and Campo PG 49, Fontanellato di Parma, Italy, 6/1942-9/1943; escaped to Switzerland, 9/1943-11/1943; internee in Switzerland, 11/1943-11/1944; served as assistant district commissioner and civil servant with Colonial Administrative Service in Gold Coast, 1950-1953; served as Colonial Secretary with Colonial Administrative Service in British Honduras, 1953-1956

REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and training with Coldstream Guards in GB, 1940-1941: family connection with Vickers-Armstrong armaments manufacturer; enlistment, 4/1940; period as officer cadet at Royal Military College, Sandhurst; volunteering for overseas service. Recollections of operations as officer with 1 Coy, 3rd Bn Coldstream Guards, 200th Guards Bde in North Africa, 1/1942-6/1942: voyage aboard HMT Louis Pasteur from GB to Egypt; move to Western Desert, 1/1942; posting to 1 Coy at Buq Buq, Egypt; machine gun training; move into Knightsbridge Box, Libya, 4/1942; unit casualties; orders to leave Knightsbridge Box, Libya; attempt to avoid capture at fall of Tobruk, Libya, 6/1942; capture by Italians, 6/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Campo PG 21, Chieti and Campo PG 49, Fontanellato di Parma, Italy, 9/1942-9/1943: transfer to Italy, 6/1942; behaviour of Italian guards; move to Campo PG 21 at Chieti, 9/1942; transfer to Campo PG 49, Fontanellato di Parma, 4/1943. REEL 2 Continues: character of Campo PG 49, Fontanellato di Parma; helpfulness of Italian guards; escape attempts from Campo PG 49 Fontanellato di Parma; guards tearing down of Fascist insignia on fall of Benito Mussolini, 25/7/1943; orders from War Office for prisoners of war to stay in camp on Italian armistice, 8/9/1943; discreation exercised by Senior British Officer (SBO) over order. Recollections of escape from Campo PG 49, Fontanellato di Parma, Italy to Switzerland, 9/1943-11/1943: escape from camp, 9/9/1944; taking refuge in Apennine Mountains with Captain Philip Kindersley and Major Ronald Orr Ewing; aid given by Italian peasant families in Monastero area; helping with local grape harvest; risks taken by peasants in concealing escaped prisoners of war; threat from local Facsists. REEL 3 Continues: realisation that Allies would not be arriving soon in northern Italy, 9/1943; journey to aunt's villa at Camolli to obtain supplies for escape to Switzerland; return to comrades in Monastero area, 10/1943 and decision to make his own way to Switzerland, 10/1943; leaving Italian friend's house for north, 9/11/1943; lucky encounter with escaped Yugoslavian officer, 11/1943; securing false papers; seeking aid from parish priest in Monza, 11/1943. REEL 4 Continues: aid from Italian women in Monza; character of train journey from Monza to Como; aid from Italian civilians in Como, 11/11/1943; arrangements for crossing into Switzerland; cost of bribes to those who took prisoners of war over border; crossing border into Switzerland, 18/11/1943-19/11/1943; fate of Captain Philip Kindersley and Major Ronald Orr Ewing. Aspects of period as internee in Switzerland, 11/1943-11/1944: effects of having contacts in the country; part time job as assistant to head of Military Intelligence Section 6 (MI6) in Geneva; rule about who could use escape line through southern France; repatriation, 11/1944. REEL 5 Continues: Recollections of period as civil servant with Colonial Service in Gold Coast, British West Africa, 1950-1953: initial posting as Assistant District Commissioner in Ashanti Province, 1950; duties; transport problems; voting arrangements for first elections, 1951; enthusiasm of ex-servicemen for Independence; courtesy shown by officials to Ashanti hierarchy; resentment shown to British by African graduates; attitudes in administration to readiness for Independence; formation of first African Council of Ministers after elections, 1951; work in Secretariat, 1951-1953; disagreement of his superior with Governor of Kenya over registration of Europeans there; system of appointment of African supernumeries to learn jobs formerly held by Europeans. REEL 6 Continues: ease with which his own supernumerary learnt his job; willingness of European civil servants to co-operate with process of Africanisation; lack of interest of Africans in Mau Mau movement in Kenya, 1952; attitudes of Ashanti Tribe towards rest of Gold Coast population and approaching Independence; civil servants who stayed on after Independence, 1957; lack of resentment about suppression of Accra Riots, 1948; good humour of Ghanaians. Aspects of period as colonial secretary with Colonial Service in British Honduras, 1953-1956: arrival in British Honduras, 4/1953; low level of salaries in Caribbean colonies; an ex-serviceman friend he made during period in British Honduras.