Fallen WW2 soldier's family found

Two weeks ago, our newspaper published a story in a bid to track down the family of Stoneleigh gunner James Brisk, 36, who died near a Lamsdorf prison camp in Poland, prompting his great niece, Jane Edwards, to come forward.

Mrs Edwards, 52, who lives in Twickenham, said: “I don’t get the Epsom Guardian here, but a friend who lives in Epsom saw the story and read it to me. My mum still remembers stories about him that my dad used to tell her. They lived in the same house when he was young and my dad used to say James was a bit of a loner.

“He was my dad’s uncle and I heard he was a very bright man. He used to work as a gardener before the war and was very good at helping my dad with his homework.”

Former Londoner Dale Brush will now be able to return the set of 10 pictures his father Lloyd Brush, a private with the Royal Canadian Infantry’s Essex Scottish Regiment took home to Canada.

Mr Brisk was found hanged on August 25, 1942, a few kilometres from Freiheit, Sudetenland, now known as Svoboda nad Upou, Czech Republic, after what is believed to have been an attempted escape from Lamsdorf.

Mrs Edwards said: “We found out he committed suicide. The husband of Gladys, one of James’ sisters, worked in the records office and he looked it up and found out James had committed suicide.”

Gunner Brisk, who served in the 57th Anti Tank Regiment, East Surrey, was buried in a Catholic cemetery called Marschendorf, in Freiheit, but has since been re-buried in the Prague War Cemetery.

The photographer who took the pictures, Earle Silverwood, escaped the Lamsdorf camp, in Poland, leaving Private Brush a war log album containing the photographs.

He escaped the camp with a mission to tell the Allies about a secret V1 bomb factory in Poland.

According to researcher David Brooks, from the Bourne Hall Museum in Ewell, Mr Silverwood was rescued and passed on the information allowing the Allies to bomb the factory.

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