Accession Number | P02551.012 |
---|---|
Collection type | Photograph |
Object type | Black & white |
Physical description | Black & white |
Conflict |
Second World War, 1939-1945 |
Copyright |
Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain This item is in the Public Domain |
Czechoslovakia. 1942. A group of friends including Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade ...
Czechoslovakia. 1942. A group of friends including Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, 17th Brigade Company, Australian Army Service Corps, 26403 Private Sydney O. C. (Mac) Kerkham and some of the local villagers outside Praveuv Mill where they stayed between 18 February 1945 and 15 April 1945. The villagers of Miretin sheltered Private Lawrence Phillip Saywell, Sydney (Mac) Kerkham and two Russians after they escaped from Kommando E7010 (a prison camp in Bohemia), in return Saywell, Kerkham and the Russians offered to assist the Czech partisans in their sabotage operations. Private Saywell was murdered - shot in the head by a German SS Patrol on 8 May 1945 (VE Day). He is buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Miretin, Czechoslovakia. Five months after his death, a memorial was erected in his honour by the "grateful inhabitants of the village of Miretin". In November 1945, the President of the Czechoslovak Republic awarded Private Saywell the Czechoslovak Military Cross for his "brave and eminent services to our State in the battle for liberation".