Photograph (copy) of Staff Sergeant John Bailey, Interpreter at Lydiard Park POW Camp

John Bailey, Staff Sergeant with the Royal Pioneer Corps and Interpreter at POW 160 Hospital Camp at Lydiard Park between 1946 and 1948.

John, born was born Johann Waldorf in Mayen German. His Austrian mother married an English Regimental Sergeant Major of the Second Royal Gloucester Regiment and John adopted his step-father's surname. John's extraordinary story of surviving shipwrecks and escaping the Gestapo before being rescued by the Allied forces and becoming a camp translator can be read in AN ENGLISH HERO - see Items of Interest below.

The image is part of a selection of documents, including letters, service books, licences, photographs and official forms, relating to John Bailey and his wife Sylvia and their years at the camp.