Healey, Kevin Leonard Winton 'Wint' (Warrant Officer, b.1909 - d.?)

Collection relating to the Second World War service and internment of NX9669 Kevin Leonard Winton Healey, 2/3rd Infantry Battalion, 1941-1946. The collection consists of a diary kept by Healey while interned at Stalag XXA, several letters, and a small number of administrative documents.

The diary’s cover has ‘Stalag XXA’ printed on the cover and includes brief and regular undated entries concerning Healey’s time as a prisoner of war. Topics covered include the weather and activities undertaken by prisoners such as lectures and sporting matches. The diary includes brief mentions of events such as the bombing of Darwin that Healey had read about in newspaper reports. At the front of the diary, Healey has noted some important dates including 18 April 1941, the day he was wounded in Greece.

The collection's letters include three typed letters to Healey from 'Britta' in Helsinki from 1946, that express great pleasure at the renewed correspondence. In the letters, Britta writes articulately and in some detail about the post-war situation in Finland, including separation from her parents, the difficulty of obtaining goods and food ('butter, milk and eggs all going East'), political and practical issues with regard to living in 'a conquered country', and about her hopes to leave the country for New York. A letter to Healey from Albert Rudoph Herude from Munich in 1946 asks after Healey’s welfare and gives brief news of mutual acquaintances. Another letter dated 15 November 1944 (very faded and barely readable) is from an unknown person to Winton’s mother Melanie Healey, assuring her of her son's 'fine spirits and good condition' as a prisoner of war.

The collection also includes other documents such as a record of service book, demobilisation procedure book, a leave pass, and a tobacco ration document.