Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson

A fine Second World War persistent escaper’s D.C.M. group of three awarded to Private R. Dunbar, The Gordon Highlanders

Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.VI.R. (2879107 Pte. R. Dunbar, Gordons); 1939-45 Star; War Medal 1939-45 one or two edge bruises and minor contact marks, good very fine and better (3) £2500-3000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals to The Gordon Highlanders and Associated Units from the Collection of A.J. Henderson.

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D.C.M. London Gazette 12 February 1942.

Robert Dunbar, an Aberdeen man who was a regular soldier in the Gordons before the War, was captured at St. Valery-en-Caux on 12 June 1940, while serving in the 1st Battalion. His M.I. 9 report takes up the story:

‘I was captured at St. Valery on 12 June 1940 and was marched via St. Pol to Bethune. We reached Bethune on 20 June and I escaped in company with Privates A. Harper and S. Westland.

We fell out on the road and hid behind some houses until the column was past. The inhabitants then gave us civilian clothes, and we walked back eight miles to Auchel. We all separated in Auchel but I used often to see Harper and Westland until I was recaptured.

I spent three months at Auchel as the guest of a cafe proprietor, but a Polish girl, whose name I do not know, told a German Officer that I was English. I was arrested about 20 September and taken to Lille where I was tried for attempted sabotage. I was acquitted on this charge, but was sentenced to undergo four months solitary confinement for having escaped. I was taken to Stuttgart in a cattle-truck and driven to a camp a few miles outside the city. I never knew its name. I was in solitary confinement until the end of January 1941 and had no chance to escape. When my sentence expired, I found that the camp was full of French prisoners and that the only other Englishman was a Private R. Herring, Royal Signals (escape recorded from Stalag 190; date unknown). He had a French wife, a school teacher, living near Lille and she had been arrested by the Germans.

The camp was so well guarded by wire and M.G. posts that we planned to escape while we were working outside it. We made a dash for it on 14 February, during the afternoon, while we were shovelling coal in a railway siding and ran along a short curving tunnel to avoid the fire of our guards. We were fired at, but, at the far end of the tunnel we hid in an air-raid shelter until dark. We boarded a goods train, having no idea where it was going, and hid in a truck. In the morning we slipped off and found ourselves in Holland. I cannot remember where we left the train, but we spent some three weeks wandering around Holland and Belgium. We reached Lille on 12 April and Herring left me to look for his wife.

I went on alone to Auchel where I found my host and hostess of the previous year had been sentenced to seven years imprisonment each for harbouring me. I returned to Bethune, where another cafe proprietress, who knew about this, nevertheless gave me shelter and clothes and procured false identity papers for me. I stayed with her for some days. On 20 April I left by train for Paris assisted by a French guide. I do not know his name. I stayed 12 days in Paris and then went down to Dompiere, where I crossed the demarcation line on 2 May with the aid of a butcher’s assistant. After crossing the line I was directed to Montlucon, where I was arrested and sent to St. Hippolyte.

I escaped from St. Hippolyte on 7 May but was recaptured three days later and given 14 days imprisonment. Early in June I escaped again and got as far as Narbonne, where I was recaptured at the beginning of July. This time I was given 30 days imprisonment.

On 17 August I escaped with Gunner A. V. Badman by sawing through the bars of a room near the dining-hall. We were directed to Nines, Perpignan and Banyuls. From Banyuls we crossed the Pyrenees in a party of seven, not including a Spanish guide. It took three days and two nights to cross because the guide missed the way twice. The others who were guided across were:

Lance-Corporal H. J. Warnett; Driver J. Dulan; Corporal H. Monaghan; Driver D. Ower; Private W. Winslade and Gunner A. V. Badman.

On 27 August we were arrested at Figueras and sent to a concentration camp at Miranda. I was released on 14 October and taken to Gibraltar.’