Lieutenant James Allgood's tragic bid for freedom
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An extensive collection of World War II related ephemera, mainly being personal correspondence concerning the war, capture, escape from a Prisoner of War camp in Italy, and subsequent death of Lieutenant James Allgood, MC (1910-1943).
James was the only son of Edith Allgood and Rev. Roland Frederick Allgood of Ingram Rectory, Northumberland. He was educated at Charterhouse school in the mid-1920s and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, before becoming a land agent. Allgood joined the Army before the outbreak of war and served with 72 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, service No.88190, and was mentioned in despatches in France in 1940.
By 1942, Allgood was in North Africa as the Allies struggled to gain control of the eastern Mediterranean.
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He was recommended for the Military Cross for his part in taking the Martuba Airfield with the following announcement:
"This officer displayed extreme courage and devotion to duty. On the 21st March 1942, he was acting as Command Post Officer to the Battery firing on the Martuba aerodrome and, as such, was the target of enemy heavy counter-battery fire and incessant dive-bombing and machine gun attacks. He displayed a complete disregard for his own safety, carrying on with his work just the same as if it had been a peacetime Artillery practice. He was quite undaunted and, during the very few lulls in these air attacks, continued to engage the enemy. Later on Lieutenant Allgood was wounded, and although unable to stand, continued to give directions for the better control of his battery fire.”
Allgood’s letter to his mother (included in this lot) is less dramatic:
‘Don’t be alarmed, just a slight wound in the back!’ and of his journey to the hospital …’22 hours… on one’s tummy on a broken stretcher in the back of a lorry is no fun! However a cup of tea revived me no end’.
He convalesced in a home run by Lady Lampson, the President of the British Red Cross Society in Egypt and wife of the British Ambassador to Egypt, Sir Miles Lampson.
Just a few weeks after the announcement of Allgood’s recommendation for the Military Cross and being discharged from hospital, he was taken prisoner by the enemy, and would never return home.
Allgood was captured in June 1942 during the Gazala Offensive near the port of Tobruk and sent to a series of prisoner of war camps starting in Tmimi holding camp, before being taken to Italy at Turutrano, Gavi and finally, the infamous Chieti.
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By August 1943 the International Red Cross had registered over 84,000 Allied PoWs in Italy.
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Prisoners’ hopes must have been lifted when Italy signed the Armistice in early September 1943, unfortunately a fateful blunder by British military intelligence meant that the Nazis were able to seize approximately 50,000 Allied prisoners and transport them to camps in Germany and Poland. Through coded messages and radio reports British intelligence had instructed POWs to stay put until the Allies arrived.
The Italian guards dutifully abandoned their posts as arranged, but the German Army wasted no time in taking over the camps – imagine their surprise at finding thousands of prisoners waiting patiently, under threat of Court Martial from their own superiors.
The prisoners were soon rounded up and transported to camps still within the Nazi-held areas of the theatre of war, in Allgood’s case, this was to be Sulmona Camp 78. From there, the men were to be transported into Germany, and it was during one of these transports that Allgood and many others decided to escape, dropping out of the cattle trucks whenever the opportunity arose. Along with another officer, Jasper ‘Chaucer’ Ridley*, the escapees swapped their uniforms with local peasants for civilian clothes and made for the mountains, before planning their way southwards through enemy lines to the recently liberated Castal di Sangro.
The Italian countryside at this time appears to have been overrun with escaped POWs, many relying on the kindness of local Italians who were only too happy to help the soldiers trying to rid their country of Fascists despite the intense bombing which the country had suffered from the Allies.
The Italians housed, fed, nursed and acted as guides for the escaped POWs at huge risk to themselves and their families. Many were shot, had their houses burnt down, livestock slaughtered and their possessions confiscated by the Nazis in reprisal or as a deterrent to others.
As winter in this mountainous region approached, life on the run became increasingly difficult; finding food and shelter while keeping warm was hard enough, but the men also had to avoid the Nazi patrols and fascist bounty-hunters scouring the countryside for escapees.
After walking for four days, Allgood and Ridley reached Filitino, and were accommodated by the Conflitti family in Campoli for a month. The soldiers talked constantly about the possibility of crossing the German lines and speculating as to when the ‘big push’ from the Allies would happen. In a letter to his mother at this time, Allgood writes:
‘I am writing this in a log cabin in the mountains near Filitino’, he goes on to describe the events since the armistice and how he and Ridley have ended up there, along with his hopes for getting to safety… ‘Expect to eat plum pudding with you all at Christmas!’.
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Gradually the escapees, either singly or in small groups, left the village to make their way towards Allied lines. A Captain Ricketts, who was travelling with a South African soldier made an attempt to leave in mid-November but they were captured by a German patrol. Escaping again, the pair returned to Campoli, and the officers continued to plan a way to ‘crack the line’.
Around this time, Ridley heard on an Allied broadcast that his brother-in-law Mark Bonham-Carter (later politician, peer, and uncle of actor Helena) had managed to escape his camp and walk almost 400 miles to safety. The group must have had the dreadful realisation that they had possibly made the wrong strategic decision in waiting for rescue by the advancing Allies, and that they should have risked walking across the lines while they were potentially less complete and more porous. They determined to make their move.
Allgood, Ridley and Captain Ricketts left Campoli on 9th December along with two Italian soldiers and a couple of local guides.
They stumbled across a minefield the next day. Allgood, Ridley and two Italians were killed instantly. Captain Ricketts survived the explosions and was found by a British reconnaissance unit who took him by field ambulance to Isernia, where he later died of gangrene from his wounds. Unfortunately, Ricketts was unable to give much information before losing consciousness.
The incident was extensively investigated and attempts made to locate and retrieve the men’s bodies – hampered by the delay in clearing the minefield. The bulk of this collection are letters to Mrs Allgood from other soldiers (and their families) who served or were imprisoned with James, and some fellow escapees, including Hugh Haig, Spenser Stibbard, Hugh Davidson Sillito, Roger Vasey, Corporal Rhodes and the Honourable Jasper Ridley (father of ‘Chaucer’). It’s clear that Mrs Allgood was desperate to piece together the details of her son’s final days and obtained the addresses of other POW escapees around the area from a Major Fletcher, who was a finance officer in the region helping to support and reimburse the Italians who took in Allied soldiers.
Touchingly, the Italian family with whom the soldiers stayed, also wrote to express their sorrow and to furnish the Allgood's with everything they knew.
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Allgood and Ridley are commemorated on the Cassino Memorial at the Cassino War Cemetery, in the Province of Frosinone near to where they died. Sadly, both of Allgood’s parents died in 1948, eight years before the unveiling of the memorial, and never having located their son’s remains.
*Jasper 'Chaucer' Ridley, son of Hon Jasper Ridley JP, husband of archaeologist Helen Laura Cressida (née Bonham-Carter), and father of Sir Adam Nicholas Ridley, who was born just the year before his father’s death.
Comprising five large mostly full folders and further framed photographs; general contents as follows:
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Letters from James Allgood 1939-1942; training at the military bases in the UK, getting kitted out with tropical gear, embarkation in late April, crossing the equator and taking part in the “usual” ceremony (‘and I was nearly drowned’), Christmas in Benghazi (Libya), travels through Egypt and Cyprus, swimming in the Dead Sea, how how he got wounded (in the incident which earned him the MC), how he was taken prisoner and escaped,
Italian POW postcards and letters from James to parents, friends and family; describing life in the camp, weather, damaged books and lack of cigarettes, having his toenail removed in the camp hospital, receiving Red Cross parcels and letters.
War Office letters and telegrams to Mrs & Rev Allgood after James was injured in 1942, and when he was taken POW, returned censored letters and stamped envelopes.
Consolation letters including from the Italian family who sheltered him and friends in Campoli Apennino (Lazio) in Italian and the English translation as provided by Hetton House POW camp in Northumberland.
Many reply letters to Mrs Allgood while she tried to trace her son’s movements during the escape.
Letters from the War Office officially presuming Lieutenant James Allgood as deceased, also regarding the King’s approval and sending the Military Cross to his parents after the war. Another dated 23rd June 1945 stating that the minefield has still not been cleared, and 1946 that the bodies had still not been found.
Invitation from the Central Chancery of The Orders of Knighthood to the MC investiture at Buckingham Palace, November 1945, official letters from banks and solicitors regarding James Allgood’s estate and lack of a will, British Red Cross and St John’s POW Dept letters.
Photographs including three framed regimental pictures, newspaper clippings, hand-drawn map.
Typed description of fellow prisoner Lt Roger Vasey’s escape from the train leaving Sulmona Camp (September 1943) after the Italians surrendered and Germans took over, through Italy, before reaching HQ at Naples Bay.
Copy of Blackwood’s Magazine from March 1945 with article ‘Prison Life in Italy’ by Lt Vasey.
Copy of the last edition of The Prisoner of War magazine July 1945.
Many further personal letters from 1939 onwards describing the shortage of petrol, a German plane being shot down etc.
Some pieces are duplicated by hand and in type.
The lot is consigned into our 27th May Medals & Militaria auction, and available for public viewing on Tuesday 26th 10am-4pm and from 9am on the day of the sale. The full catalogue will be available approximately two weeks prior to the auction.
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