Provost Henderson was in the 9th.Battalion D.L.I.which was a Territorial Regiment.He was a reserve officer before the war and volunteered for active service when war was declared in 1939.He was posted to Belgium and served on the Maginot Line during the phoney war period before the Germans invaded France.When the Germans invaded and seemed unstoppable the British Expeditionary Force,seeing that the French were capitulating, had no alternative but to retreat to the sea and hope to save the force and get back to the U.K.My Dad was on his way to Dunkirk with the rest of the British Army when his particular section when told to form a rearguard force to give the main forces time to get to the beaches.He was overrun and captured at Arras by the Liebstandarte Adolph Hitler SS regiment and wounded in action. He was marched to Poland without medical care (Posen or Poznan) as it is called in Polish is were he ended up at first. He was a prisoner for the rest of the time in numerous POW.camps Officers were moved around for security reasons ,and was also sent to Dachau for 6 months as punishment for escaping too often. Which camp he was liberated from I don’t know but I do know he got to shake hands with General Patton who was leading the liberating force in May/June 1945.Among those he was imprisoned with in various camps were ….Lord Lacelles ,Michael Goodliffe (actor),Desmond Llywellan actor in James Bond ) and Airey Neve .He and my mother moved to Coldstream in 1946 (he was offered a permanent commission in the Army but turned it down to start a builders merchant company ,the company was based in Kelso. In around 1956 it was put into liquidation (Bankruptcy) by making some poor business decisions and subsequently lost the house and everything else he owned ! We moved to various parts of England,including Liverpool,Northallerton and Newcastle ,(he was always involved in selling and marketing) were he remained until his death from Cancer in 1995.He never recovered financially from his bankruptcy and life from then on was always a bit of a struggle for the family,.He did receive a Territorial Decoration from the Army. He was also an active Freemason and a scratch golfer at the Hirsel until we left Coldstream
Keith Henderson
