This is a list of members of the British Free Corps. It is based on the list printed in Appendix 5 of Adrian Weale. Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994. .[1] The Corps (German: Britisches Freikorps) was a unit of the Waffen SS during World War II consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The Corps used the SS rank structure. The column 'MI5 no.' refers to the number allocated to the member in question in MI5's Report on the British Free Corps dated 27 March 1945, which is printed in Appendix 1 of 'Renegades'.[2] Starting in February 1944, BFC members were ordered to adopt aliases for official purposes, although several declined to do so.[3]
After the War, some members of the Corps were prosecuted. Of those members, those who had been serving in the armed forces were court-martialed, while the merchant seamen and other civilians were tried in the Old Bailey. The column 'Seymer Category' refers to a list prepared by Colonel Vivian Home Seymer of MI5 on 30 August 1945 and which is held in file KV 2/2828, entitled 'The British Free Corps. Papers about the military unit established by the German authorities to exploit renegade British prisoners of war' in the National Archives.
Another list, containing at least 165 names, appears in Richard Landwehr, Britisches Freikorps PP77–88, Lulu, 2008. . However the author records many members of the Corps separately under their real names and their aliases, as set out in the list below:
| MI5 no. | BFC Rank | Surname | Forename | Alias | Details | Sentence | MI5 Cat.[12] | Jackals of the Reich | British Rank | Unit/Ship | Landwehr number | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | data-sort-value=0 | N/A | SS-Mann | Alexander | William J. | Clyde | "arrived towards the end of September 1944... a Glaswegian … the victim of compulsion because of his sexual liaisons with a German girl" "Tough, tattooed".[13] He was selected to box for the SS pioneers against the SS police in Prague in late 1944, but lost his bout. Planned to leave with Cowie, January 1945[14] Sent to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz[15] Home Office file – HO 45/25835 | data-sort-value=0.02 | "in the middle of 1946 ... called to an MI5 office and given a severe warning as to [his] future conduct". – Passed to DPS (sic) for consideration, August 1945 | IV | data-sort-value=C | P105 – Pte Clyde (a corporal in the Highland Light Infantry) | Private – 3314447 | 3. 128. 'Corporal Clyde' | |||
| 2. | data-sort-value=0 | N/A | SS-Mann | Axon | Frank | Atkins | In late February 1945 ‘the last volunteer came forward. Frank Axon, from Crewe, had been taken prisoner in Greece in April 1941 ... Since then he had been employed as an agricultural labourer in detachments centred around Stalag XVIII-A at Wolfsberg in Austria, where in February 1945 he was accused of striking a cow, causing it to calve early. Threatened with punishment for this he was offered the alternative of joining the BFC which, unbelievable as it may seem, he accepted.’[16] Court martial papers – WO 71/1123 | data-sort-value=02 | 2 years’ imprisonment with hard labour at a court-martial[17] | VI | data-sort-value=A | P143 – "Ronald Atkins, a driver in the RAMC", P164 re sentence | Lance-corporal – 182828 | Royal Army Service Corps | 26. | ||
| 3. | data-sort-value=18 | 18 | SS-Mann | Barker | Ronald | Voysey | ‘entirely seduced by the prospect of more food, alcohol, tobacco and, above all, the opportunity to associate with women. Described by Cooper as ‘a man of very inferior intelligence’, he was an Australian, from Goulburn, New South Wales, and was captured on his ship, the, by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer in the Indian Ocean in 1941.’ Retrieved Cowie & Co. Shortly after 8/3/45 ‘Finally realizing that the British Free Corps was going to have to fight, Barker lost all of his former enthusiasm for anti-Communism and made himself ill by smoking aspirins; he was sent back to Berlin by a gullible medical officer.’ Took off towards Bremen, 9 April 1945[18] Home Office file – HO 45/25822 | data-sort-value=2 | [19] [20] 2 years' imprisonment with hard labour at the Old Bailey for offences against the Defence Regulations[21] | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=V | PP 90, 147, 151 – David Voysey | Merchant Navy Seaman | MV British Advocate | 154. 126. 'David Voysey' | ||
| 4. | data-sort-value=20 | 20 | SS-Mann | Batchelor | Harry Dean | Cameron/ Young | From Kent ... captured by the Germans in Crete and recruited from a Stalag in Austria. Planned to leave with Cowie, January 1945 Left BFC outside Schwerin on 2 May 1945.[22] Court martial papers – WO 71/1121 | data-sort-value=0.01 | Acquitted because statement improperly taken | VI | data-sort-value=C | P89 – Charles Cameron | Sapper – 1944855 | 124. 'Charles Cameron' | |||
| 5. | data-sort-value=19 | 19 | SS-Mann | Berry | Kenneth Edward | Jordan | See Kenneth Berry | data-sort-value=0.75 | 9 months' imprisonment with hard labour at the Old Bailey for offences against the Defence Regulations | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=J | Edward Jordan | Merchant Navy Seaman | SS Cymbeline | 28. Berry, 87.-88. 'Edward Jordan', 89. 'Kenneth Edwards' | ||
| 6. | Not known | Blackman | Harry Charles[23] | Not Known | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 | I | Sergeant – 6010228 | 21. | |||||||||
| 7. | data-sort-value=9 | 9 | data-sort-value=4 | Brittain | William Charles | Hundrupe | See William Brittain – National Archives – waiter and floorwalker in Bournemouth before War – Court martial papers – WO 71/1142 | data-sort-value=10 | 10 yrs – released after 2 months on med. grounds | V | data-sort-value=H | PP61, 81-2, 154 – Hundrupe | Lance-corporal – 5109799 | Royal Warwickshire Regiment serving in No. 4 Commando | 24. 121. 'Hundrupe' | ||
| 8. | Not known | Browning | Alfred | Not known | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 – NA – stool pigeon Court martial papers – WO 71/1136 | data-sort-value=0.1 | Convicted at court-martial | I | data-sort-value=R | P72 – Possibly Pte Alfred Robinson | Private – 5192947 | 50., ?116. 'Alfred Robinson' | |||||
| 9. | Not known | Chapman | NA – William James | Not known | Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted[24] | I | data-sort-value=B | P72 – possibly Pte William Bryant | Private – 14536737 or 14336737 | Not known | 51., ?115. 'William Bryant'?, 133. 'Private Bryant' | ||||
| 10. | SS-Mann | Chipchase | Robert | nil /Jones[25] | From ‘XVIIIa Spittal … Robert Chipchase … In fact Chipchase only stayed for a couple of days before going to the isolation camp,’ [26] | data-sort-value=0.015 | Dealt with summarily by his commanding officer and discharged[27] | II | Private – W1755 or W/X 1755 | 2/32nd Battalion[28] of the Australian Army | 53. | ||||||
| 11. | Not known | Clarke | William (Nobby) – NA – Frederick Wilfred Edward | nil | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | I | data-sort-value=C | P58 – Nobby Clark | Gunner – 6846466 | Royal Artillery | 56. | ||||
| 12. | data-sort-value=3 | 3 | data-sort-value=2 | Cooper | Thomas Haller | Böttcher | See Thomas Haller Cooper | data-sort-value=99 | Death for high treason at the Old Bailey,[29] appeal failed,[30] execution date set for 28 February,[31] commuted to life imprisonment[32] – served 7 years | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=B | Peter Butcher | N/A – Civilian | N/A – Civilian | 2., 109. 'Peter Butcher' | ||
| 13. | data-sort-value=1 | 1 | data-sort-value=3 | Courlander | Roy Nicholas | Regan | See Roy Courlander | data-sort-value=15 | 15 years[33] – reduced to 9 – served 6 | V | data-sort-value=R | PP 43, 59-60, 150-1- Roy Regan | Lance-Corporal – 2771 | 18th Battalion (New Zealand) | 5. 'Roy Regan', 30. Roy Nicholas Courlander | ||
| 14. | data-sort-value=3 | Cowie | Hugh Wilson | Kingsley | 'After being captured in France in 1940 and imprisoned in Stalag XX-A, had made several escape attempts and joined the BFC to avoid court-martial for having a clandestine radio at his Upper Silesian work party'; in Dresden he took drill parades; he was also instrumental in having six Maoris, recruited by Hans Kauss, returned to their work party on the basis that the BFC was a ‘whites only’ unit.;[34] planned to leave, January 1945; sent to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz; British Security Service file held by the National Archives under reference KV 2/257; Court martial papers – WO 71/1120In 1953, Cowie was sentenced to three years in prison for demanding money under threats from a Jewish businessman. He would drift in and out of prison for various crimes, and died in prison in 1977.[35] | data-sort-value=15 | 15 years and dismissed with ignominy from the army at a general court-martial;[36] ‘(later reduced to seven)’ | V | data-sort-value=K | P86 – Robert Kingsley | Private – 2876924 | Gordon Highlanders | 122. 'Robert Kingsely' | ||||
| 15. | SS-Mann | Croft | Frederick | Nixon | 'not recruited by the renegades but joined as the result of blackmail by the German military authorities. Frederick Croft ... from Finchley, had escaped a total of five times from his working party, until in July 1944 he was put in solitary confinement for a five-week stretch; he was given the opportunity to join the BFC several times before he caved in'; '[i]n August of that year he demanded to be returned to his camp. He was stripped of his uniform and summarily despatched to an SS punishment camp near Schwerin, where he worked in a road-making gang.';[37] returned to the BFC in November.;[38] surrendered with Cooper in Schwerin on 2 May[39] Court martial papers – WO 71/1118 | data-sort-value=0.5 | 6 months at a court-martial | VI | data-sort-value=N | P147 – Nixon – P164 – sentence | Bombardier – 900679 | Royal Artillery | |||||
| 16. | data-sort-value=0 | N/A | SS-Mann | Croft | George | nil | Joined about Christmas 1944 – ‘George Croft …who had … been in captivity since 1940, … [he and John Sommerville] held strong views about Communism, but in the working party where their long familiarity with the language had led to their employment as interpreters, they were also under physical threat from unruly gangs which had grown up amongst the other prisoners. After some discussion, the pair decided that their best option was to join the Waffen-SS, preferably in the ‘Totenkopf’ division which they had read about in the English version of Signal magazine. As soon as they made their views known they were hustled to Berlin for an interview with [the BFC's Verbindungsoffizier SS-Obersturmführer Dr Walter] Kühlich, who persuaded them to join the BFC instead; in March 1945 ‘suddenly found himself stricken with gonorrhoea serious enough for him to be sent to a military hospital in Neubrandenburg; he had caught it from a girlfriend in Berlin,’[40] Court martial papers – WO 71/1124 | data-sort-value=7 | 7 years' penal servitude | VI | Private – 4390016 | Green Howards | 57. | ||||
| 17. | Not known | Cryderman | Arthur James | Tilbury | Weale ‘from Manitoba’ – Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | I | data-sort-value=T | P43 – "Private Arthur Tilbury" | Private – H/41636 | 59., 117. 'Arthur Tilbury' | |||||
| 18. | Not known | Dowden | Clifford | Not known | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | I | data-sort-value=H | P58 – Clifford Haggard | Gunner – 14224674 | 64. | |||||
| 19. | data-sort-value=14 | 14 | SS-Mann | Ellsmore | Not known | Fraser | Weale ‘a Belgian civilian named Theo Menz who had acquired a British military identity as ‘Sergeant Ellsmore’. From ‘XVIIIa Spittal … Sergeant Theo Ellsmore, the Belgian masquerading as a South African.’ Charged with mutiny on 20 June and sent to Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig ... there is some evidence to suggest that Theo Menz, alias Sturmmann Theo Ellsmore, was executed at Stutthof shortly after his arrival.[41] | data-sort-value=0.25 | data-sort-value=M | PP 78 and 168 – Theo Maertens | N/A – Civilian | N/A – Civilian | 55. 119. 'Theo Maertens' 153. 'Private Frazer' | ||||
| 20. | data-sort-value=13 | 13 | data-sort-value=2 | SS-Oberscharführer | Freeman | Thomas | Rogers | ‘recruited by Courlander from XVIIIa in Austria in February 1944…decided to join the BFC as a means of attempting to reach the Russian lines and had discussed this and eventually received permission from RSM Jim Mantle, camp leader at Arbeitskommando 99… Freeman, a big man in all senses of the word, stayed on for several months; his case is particularly interesting in that he was the only member of the BFC to be unequivocally cleared of any guilt for his involvement after the war. MI5 later noted: ‘Private Freeman was a member of the British Free Corps but has been cleared of suspicion as it is now abundantly clear that he joined with the object of escaping and of sabotaging the movement.’ [PRO: HO45/ 25805]. He succeeded in at least one of these aims.’ 20 April 1944 – ‘promoted Oberscharführer but with responsibility as discipline NCO (‘ Spiess’ in German military parlance) at Hildesheim;' charged with mutiny on 20 June and sent to Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig. … ‘the charge of mutiny included allegations that I was trying to obstruct the efficient working of the Corps, encouraging insubordination, etc.’ Freeman succeeded in escaping from Stutthof in November 1944 and managed to reach Russian lines; he was repatriated in March 1945;[42] | data-sort-value=0 | the only member of the BFC to be unequivocally cleared of any guilt for his involvement after the war – Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | IV | data-sort-value=R | PP 77–9 – Buck Rogers, Canadian[43] | Private – 5831031 | No. 7 Commando[44] | 66. 118. 'Buck Rogers' | |
| 21. | data-sort-value=34 | 34 | SS-Mann | Futcher | Roy Ralph | Phillpotts | threatened with court-martial for associating with German women;[45] In August 1944 he demanded to be returned to his camp. He was stripped of his uniform and summarily despatched to an SS punishment camp near Schwerin, where he worked in a road-making gang. He returned to the BFC in November. Planned to leave with Cowie, January 1945 Sent to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz Home Office file – HO 45/25836 | data-sort-value=0.02 | Released with a warning – 'Committed fascist and anti-Semite ... not considered to be a major player in the unit'[46] – Passed to DPS (sic) for consideration, August 1945 | IV | data-sort-value=R | Possibly Pte [P154 – Joe] Reeves of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry | Private – 5724178 | Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry | 130. 'Private Reeves' 157 'Joe Philpotts' | ||
| 22. | Not known | Haines | Cyril | Not known | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 – later asked to go back to BFC, so Seymer categorises him as IV | data-sort-value=0.014 | No further action taken due to insufficient evidence[47] | IV | Private – 4459934 | Durham Light Infantry | 67. | ||||||
| 23. | 10. | SS-Mann | Heighes | Robert Reginald | Reid | Weale – Petersfield butcher – Left Pankow December 1943 – returned in 1944 – by September had taken control of the unit's stores and had discovered that he could considerably increase his wealth by selling their contents to other occupants of the barracks and foreign workers in town.[48] In February 1945 successfully deserted from the unit and joined a column of POWs being evacuated west; … never to return to the ranks of the renegades.[49] | data-sort-value=2 | Court-martialed[50] – 2 years' imprisonment[51] | IV | PP 43,151,164 – Allan Taylor | Company sergeant major (acting)/ Private – 1437746 | Hampshire Regiment | 69. | ||||
| 24. | 24. | SS-Mann | How | William | Browne | listened to the recruiter but he did not decide to join until the spring of 1944. From Rochester in Kent.[52] In August 1944 he demanded to be returned to his camp. He was stripped of his uniform and summarily despatched to an SS punishment camp near Schwerin, where he worked in a road-making gang. He returned to the BFC in November. In February 1945 successfully deserted from the unit and joined a column of POWs being evacuated west; … never to return to the ranks of the renegades. Court martial papers – WO 71/1113 | data-sort-value=7 | 7 years' penal servitude[53] | IV | data-sort-value=B | P89 – Private Bookie Brown, a former lance-corporal in the Indian Army Military Police | Lance-Corporal – 793819 | Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, transferred to Corps of Military Police 1939 | 70. 123. 'Bookie Brown' | |||
| 25. | 37. | SS-Mann | Jackson (E) | Edward | Collins | Edward Jackson ... was also often absent from his working party … he had acquired a girlfriend in the local area; this came to the attention of the Gestapo in Dresden who arrested him and made him an offer that he felt he couldn’t refuse.[54] - HO 45/25834 | data-sort-value=0.02 | Passed to DPS (sic) for consideration, August 1945 | IV | Private – 3713897 | King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) | 45. | |||||
| 26. | Not known | Kipling | Thomas Blake | Meredith | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | I | data-sort-value=M | P58 – Rudyard Meredith | Gunner – 1123187 | 96., 114. 'Rudyard Meredith' | |||||
| 27. | SS-Mann | Labuschagne | Pieter Andries Hendrik | Smith | Joined in the winter of 1944–5 ... succumbed to one of Stranders’ German recruiters, Unterscharführer Hans Kauss, whilst working on a road gang. [D]eemed to be so useless by Mardon that he refused to take him. Slipped away in the direction of Dresden, there to be ‘liberated’ by advancing US forces.[55] | data-sort-value=0.03 | Guilty and fined £50[56] | data-sort-value=0.5 | data-sort-value=S | PP 112, 145, 151 – Private Adriaan Smith | Private – 24202 | Not Known | 71. | ||||
| 28. | 12. | SS-Mann | Lane | Robert Henry | Street | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 – returned 1944 – ‘returned to a Stalag.’ in August 1944[57] | data-sort-value=0.013 | Released with a warning – Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | IV | data-sort-value=S | PP 57, 59 – "Private Sandy Street" "from Brixton" | Private – 6145422 | 72., 95., 112. 'Sandy Street' | ||||
| 29. | Not known | Leigh | John | Not known | Left Pankow December 1943 | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | I | Fusilier – 3606704 | Lancashire Fusiliers | 73. | ||||||
| 30. | 22. | SS-Mann | Leister | Dennis John | Beckwith | SS-PK Standarte 'Kurt Eggers' – Home Office file - HO 45/25819 | data-sort-value=3 | 3 years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey for offences against the Defence Regulations | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=B | PP 90, 152 – John Beckwith | N/A – Civilian | N/A – Civilian | 25. 'John Beckwith' | |||
| 31. | 8. | Not known | Lewis | Frederick | Lander | MI5 says that he was a seaman PoW – Weale ‘Frederick Lewis, the Fascist merchant seaman, also left [in December 1943]; he found the stress of the frequent British bombing raids on Berlin too much to bear and he was allowed to return to Milag on the basis that he would continue to recruit for the legion.’ [58] | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=L | PP58, 72 – Able Seaman Walter Lander of the Royal Navy | Merchant Navy Seaman | Not known | 48., 113. 'Walter Lander' | |||||
| 32. | SS-Mann | MacKinnon | Alexander | nil | BFC's penultimate recruit … was pressured into joining the Corps to avoid punishment for ‘sabotaging’ agricultural produce. [January 1945][59] In section as at 8/3/1945[60] Left as Berneville-Claye's driver, borrowed a farmer's jacket, split up with B-C near Schwerin and handed himself over to the advancing Allies [61] Court martial papers – WO 71/1116 | data-sort-value=2 | 2 years | VI | P144 – 'Webster' was 'driven by his batman, Private Thomas Bull' | Lance-corporal – 2927002 | Cameron Highlanders | 74. | |||||
| 33. | data-sort-value=3 | Mardon | Douglas | Hodge | Joined around Christmas 1944 – Douglas Cecil Mardon, the third of the trio of South Africans who joined the Corps at Dresden, possessed very rigid views on the threat to the free world of Soviet success on the Eastern Front. As a POW he had seen Russian prisoners and had come to distinctly racist conclusions about them which, when he read BFC recruiting literature, caused him to volunteer with alacrity. On 8 March 1945 ‘received promotion to Unterscharführer and was given command of a section … was undoubtedly sincere in his wish to fight against the advance of Communism’. On 15/3/1945 ‘removed the tell-tale BFC insignia from [his uniform] … substituted an SS runes collar patch’ [62] Was left with HQ between 29 April and 2 May | data-sort-value=0.04 | Fined £375 for high treason – or £75 per Times | data-sort-value=0.5 | data-sort-value=H | PP 112, 145 – Douglas Hodge | Lance-Corporal – 6221 | Not known | 75. | ||||
| 34. | 7. | data-sort-value=4 | Martin | Edwin Barnard | Bartlett | Edwin Barnard Martin | data-sort-value=25 | 25 years[63] | V | data-sort-value=B | Edwin Bartlett | Private – A/211311 | Essex Scottish Regiment of the Canadian Army | 101. 'Edward Bartlett' | |||
| 35. | 2. | data-sort-value=3 | SS-Unterscharführer | Maton | Francis Paul | MacCarthy | SS-PK Standarte 'Kurt Eggers' – Francis Paul Maton – Nat Archives P 38 says that he was born around 1920 in Ireland – "Francis Maton was ... a former member of the British Union. He was captured on Crete whilst serving as a corporal in 50 (Middle East) Commando, having been severely wounded in the legs. Commando corporal who had already broadcast for Radio National … with his pronounced Fascist sympathies appeared to be good BFC material"[64] British Security Service file held by the National Archives under reference - KV 2/264 – [65] Court martial papers – WO 71/1117 | data-sort-value=10 | 10 years – Richard Paul Francis MATON: captured in Crete in 1941, he joined the British Free Corps and broadcast propaganda in 1943. Court martialled in 1945, he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for voluntarily aiding the enemy.[66] | V | data-sort-value=M | PP 101, 150-151, 162 – MacCarthy | Territorial soldier/ Corporal – 1437735 | Royal Artillery | 44., 105. 'Frank McCarthy' | ||
| 36. | 4. | data-sort-value=3 | SS-Unterscharführer | MacLardy | Francis George | Wood | SS-San. Ers. Btl. Lichtenburg. Frank McLardy – Court martial papers – WO 71/1125 | data-sort-value=98 | Life at a court-martial[67] – reduced to 15 years – served 7 | V | data-sort-value=W | PP44, 59, 78-9, 81-2, 151 – Antony Wood. | Sergeant – 7522956 | Royal Army Medical Corps | 7. 'Anthony Wood' | ||
| 37. | 38. | SS-Mann | Miller | William John | nil | Joined Dec 44/Jan 45 – captured at Tobruk in 1943, who was persuaded to join the BFC in preference to serving a four-month sentence at the military prison in Graudenz. Planned to leave with Cowie, January 1945 Deemed to be so useless by Mardon that he refused to take him. Taken to Dronnewitz and arrested in Schwerin[68] | data-sort-value=0.013 | Released with a warning – Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | IV | data-sort-value=H | PP 112–3, 146-7 – Ian Hardcastle | Gunner/ Driver – 847322 | Royal Artillery | 77. | |||
| 38. | 5. | data-sort-value=5 | SS-Sturmmann | Minchin | Alfred Vivian | Milton | Alfred Minchin | data-sort-value=7 | 7 years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey for offences against the Defence Regulations | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=M | PP 43, 147, 151-2 – "a merchant seaman called Spencer Milton" | Merchant Navy Seaman | SS Empire Ranger | 102. 'Sgt Miltion' | ||
| 39. | SS-Mann | Munns | Charles | nil | a Scotsman ... had acquired a girlfriend in the area of his POW camp near Danzig … his girlfriend, Gertrud Schroeder, was pregnant, an offence technically punishable by death. Allowed to leave the BFC … in order to return to his fiancée in Danzig, January 1945[69] | data-sort-value=0.013 | - Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted‘seems to have escaped punishment entirely, presumably by convincing MI5 that joining the BFC was entirely the result of duress’ | III | Private – 4452237 | Durham Light Infantry | 78. | ||||||
| 40. | SS-Mann | Nicholls | Ernest | nil | In section as at 2/5/1945 – left with a group of ex-prisoners[70] Court martial papers – WO 71/1122 | data-sort-value=5 | 5 years' penal servitude | VI | Private – T/92375 | Royal Army Service Corps[71] - | 165. | ||||||
| 41. | 30. | SS-Mann | Nightingale | Harry | nil | Arrived towards the end of September 1944 … from Burnley, was the victim of compulsion because of his sexual liaison with a German girl[72] – In February 1945 ‘made [successful] representations, along with Rose and Symonds, to go to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz.’[73] | data-sort-value=0.1 | Convicted at court-martial | IV | data-sort-value=T | P154 – Reginald Thrush | Gunner – 874257 | 79. 132. 'Private Thrush' | ||||
| 42. | SS-Mann | Perkins | Thomas – NA – William Cecil | Walters | during a party held in their accommodation, Perkins stole a pistol … and sold it to a foreign worker. Perkins claimed to have been a prison officer before the war, but according to Cooper ‘his general character and behaviour led me to believe that his knowledge of prisons was very probably from the inside rather than the outside of a cell’ whilst Maton later remarked that Perkins ‘would steal anything’. Perkins was arrested and, after he had spent a couple of days in close confinement, sent away to the isolation camp.[74] | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | IV | data-sort-value=W | PP 105, 154 – Walters | Corporal – 6915004 | Royal Northumberland Fusiliers[75] | 80. | ||||
| 43. | 21. | SS-Mann | Pleasants | Eric Reginald | Dorran | Eric Pleasants | data-sort-value=6 | Never tried, but spent 8 years in a Soviet gulag | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=D | P90 – Eric Durin | N/A – Civilian | N/A – Civilian | 8. 'E. Durin' | |||
| 44. | 23. | data-sort-value=5 | SS-Sturmmann | Rose | Norman | Owens | Weale – – Left Pankow December 1943 – returned 1944 – ‘a long-serving regular army lance-corporal – ‘given the job of storeman and also placed in charge of the distribution of the Red Cross parcels’[76] – In August of that year he demanded to be returned to his camp. He was stripped of his uniform and summarily despatched to an SS punishment camp near Schwerin, where he worked in a road-making gang. – He returned to the BFC in November.In February 1945 ‘made [successful] representations, along with Symonds and Nightingale, to go to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz.’ Court martial papers – WO 71/1130 | data-sort-value=98 | Life at a court-martial[77] | IV | data-sort-value=O | P105 – Pte Owens | Lance-corporal – 5669883 | East Surreys/ Somerset Light Infantry /Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) | 81. 97. 'Sgt Major Own' | ||
| 45. | 25. | SS-Mann | Rowlands | Herbert | Miller | ‘member of the Merchant Navy. Rowlands was a Londoner who, bizarrely enough, had fought in, and deserted from, the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War; by all accounts he exhibited great resentment towards any kind of authority and by joining the BFC seems to have been making a gesture of defiance at the prisoner leadership in Milag.’[78] – In August 1944 he demanded to be returned to his camp. He was stripped of his uniform and summarily despatched to an SS punishment camp near Schwerin, where he worked in a road-making gang. – By November he had escaped and was hiding out with Herbert Smallwood, an elderly English ex-soldier, in the Berlin suburb of Spandau[79] – British Security Service file held by the National Archives under reference KV 2/625 – Home Office file – HO 45/25801"Seamen Committed For Trial." Times, London, England, 3 Jan. 1946: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. | data-sort-value=2 | 2 years imprisonment with hard labour at the Old Bailey for offences against the Defence Regulations | data-sort-value=0 | data-sort-value=M | PP 90, 152-3 – Roland Miller | Merchant Navy Seaman | Not known | 41. 127. 'Roland Miller' | |||
| 46. | 32. | data-sort-value=1 | SS-Untersturmführer | Shearer | William | nil | William Shearer | data-sort-value=C | P85 – "a captain from a Scottish regiment" | Lieutenant | 4th Seaforth Highlanders | 152. | |||||
| 47. | data-sort-value=0 | N/A | SS-Mann | Somerville | John | nil | Joined about Christmas 1944 – George Croft and John Sommerville, who had both been in captivity since 1940, also held strong views about Communism, but in the working party where their long familiarity with the language had led to their employment as interpreters, they were also under physical threat from unruly gangs which had grown up amongst the other prisoners. After some discussion, the pair decided that their best option was to join the Waffen-SS, preferably in the ‘Totenkopf’ division which they had read about in the English version of Signal magazine. As soon as they made their views known they were hustled to Berlin for an interview with Kühlich, who persuaded them to join the BFC instead.[80] In section as at 2/5/1945 – left with a group of ex-prisoners.[81] | data-sort-value=0.09 | 'Not yet located' in August 1946 | Gunner – 1449698 | Royal Artillery | 58. | |||||
| 48. | 17 | SS-Mann | Stokes | Albert | Gordon | Agreed along with Wood and Freeman to join – from ‘XVIIIa Spittal … Albert Stokes’ – Albert Stokes, the quiet Australian, had actually joined at the same time as his friend Tom Freeman with the specific intention of sabotaging the unit. Batchelor later suggested, ‘They didn’t want the Jerries to think they were frightened so they just went,’[82] – Left BFC outside Schwerin on 2 May[83] | data-sort-value=1 | 1 year's imprisonment[84] | VI | Corporal – WX 1839 | 2/32nd Battalion[85] of the Australian Army | 54. | |||||
| 49. | 11. | data-sort-value=5 | SS-Sturmmann | Symonds | Henry | Davies | Henry Alfred Symonds – MI5 says that alias Davis was a battalion signaler – Planned to leave with Cowie, January 1945, but did not show up[86] – In February 1945 ‘made [successful] representations, along with Rose and Nightingale, to go to the isolation camp at Drönnewitz.’ - Court martial papers – WO 71/1126 | data-sort-value=15 | 15 years at a court-martial[87] | V | data-sort-value=D | PP43, 59 – "Private Harry Davies" | Signaller/ Private – 6153448 | East Surrey Regiment, then Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment | 42., 107. 'Harry Davies', 110. | ||
| 50. | Not known | Van Heerden | L.P. | nil | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 – "Killed in action on 12 February 1945, during bombing of Dresden"[88] | data-sort-value=0.5 | data-sort-value=P | Possibly P 112 – Jan Pieterson | Rifleman – RH6857914[89] | Long Range Desert Group | 68. | ||||||
| 51. | SS-Mann | Viljoen | Lourens | nil | Joined Dec 44/Jan 45 – a South African, who joined through the good offices of a friendly SS NCO in charge of his working party.[90] – hospitalized with burns during the Dresden raids[91] | data-sort-value=0.01 | Acquitted | data-sort-value=0.5 | data-sort-value=P | possibly P 116 – Corporal Ludewicus Rendsberg | Corporal – 195528 | Not known | 91. | ||||
| 52. | Not known | Wilson | John | nil | Weale – Left Pankow December 1943 – alleged to have sought to return to BFC | data-sort-value=0.013 | Judge-Advocate General decided no disciplinary action warranted | IV | Private – 14406287 | Durham Light Infantry | 93. | ||||||
| 53. | 6. | data-sort-value=2 | Wilson | John Eric | Montgomery | "News in Brief." Times, London, England, 22 Jan. 1946: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. Court martial papers -WO 71/1119 | data-sort-value=10 | 10 years at a court martial[92] | V | data-sort-value=M | Company Sergeant Major ‘Tug’ Montgomery – PP 43, 61, 100 | Trooper – 7684352 | No. 3 Commando | 43., 94. 'Eric Wilson' | |||
| 54. | 15/ 16 | SS-Mann | Wood | Lionel | Williams | ‘recruited by Courlander from Stalag XVIIIa in Austria in February 1944…decided to join the BFC as a means of attempting to reach the Russian lines and had discussed this and eventually received permission from RSM Jim Mantle, camp leader at Arbeitskommando 99… only stayed with the BFC for three weeks before demanding to be returned to camp’[93] | data-sort-value=0.015 | Dealt with summarily by his commanding officer and discharged | II | data-sort-value=F | Possibly P89 – Corporal Lionel Frost | Lance-Corporal – V/X 13097 or W/X 13097 | 2/32nd Battalion of the Australian Army | 65. 125. 'Lionel Frost' | |||
This category includes citizens of neutral Eire who were captured while serving in the British Army – see British nationality law and the Republic of Ireland#British subjects with local Irish nationality. It does not include members of the BFC who also served in other units of the German armed forces, such as Thomas Haller Cooper (Waffen-SS), Roy Courlander, Dennis John Leister and Francis Paul Maton (all SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers) and Frank McLardy (SS Medical Corps Lichtenberg).
| No. | German Rank | Surname | Forename | Alias | Details | Sentence | Jackals of the Reich | British Rank | British Unit/Ship | German unit | Landwehr number | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | SS-Hauptsturmführer | Berneville-Claye | Douglas | Douglas Berneville-Claye | Not prosecuted | Chapter 15 – Archibald Webster | Second Lieutenant – 20172 | L detachment of the Special Air Service | SS Hauptamt | 27. | ||
| 2. | Sonderführer | Becker* | Frank Chetwynd | 'WAR: Renegades and Persons suspected or convicted of assisting the Enemy: BECKER, Frank Chetwin; served in the German army and in the Indian Legion (Free Indian Corps)' [94] | N/A – Civilian | N/A | Indian Legion | 164. | ||||
| 3. | SS-Unterscharführer | Brady | James | Charlos de Lacy[95] | James Brady (SS) | Fifteen years in prison, of which the General Officer Commanding London District remitted three years[96] – released in 1950 | Fusilier | Royal Irish Fusiliers | SS-Jagdverband Mitte | 22. | ||
| 4. | SS-Hilfswilliger | Celliers* | William | South African policeman from Windhoek, South-West Africa | Not prosecuted[97] | Corporal | 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler | 104. | ||||
| 5. | Codd* | John | Juan Louis[98] | John Codd | Not prosecuted | Corporal | Royal Welch Fusiliers | German Intelligence service (Abwehr) and SS Intelligence/ Sicherheitsdienst | ||||
| 6. | SS-Hilfswilliger | Conen* | James | London taxi-driver | Not prosecuted | Corporal | 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler | 103. | ||||
| 7. | SS-Untersturmführer | Freeman | Railton | Royston/Metcalfe | Court Martial papers AIR 18/28 The National Archives Security Service file KV 2/631 | Ten years in prison[99] | Flying officer – 77107 | No. 16 Squadron RAF | SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers | 6. 'Raymond Metcalfe' | ||
| 8. | Purdy* | Roy Walter | Pointer/Ronald Wallace | Walter Purdy | Death sentence commuted to life imprisonment – released after nine years[100] | HMS Van Dyck | SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers | 46. | ||||
| 9. | SS-Sturmbannführer | Stranders | Vivian | Not prosecuted – had been naturalized as a German citizen in 1933[101] | PP 92–6 – appears under his real name | Captain in the RAF | SS-Hauptamt Amtsgruppe D | 83. | ||||
| 10. | SS-Mann | Stringer | Frank | Willy Le Page[102] | Frank Stringer Court martial papers – WO 71/1132 | 15 years[103] | Fusilier – 7043206 | Royal Irish Fusiliers | SS-Jagdverband Mitte | 23. |