ALBERT SNELL

4800317 Lance Corporal, 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment

died on 16th January 1944 aged 30.

Albert was born in Scotton on 28th June 1913, the son of John William and Ann (Annie) Elizabeth Snell (nee Skelton).  His elder brothers and sisters were Florence Ivy, Wilfred, Florence Ivy, Alice and Edith while his younger brother Willy was known as Bill.

It is possible their mother died very soon after the birth of Bill at the age of 36.

When Florence married Samuel Page in 1925 they set up home in Scotterthorpe and Albert and Bill went to live with them.  The house was on Sennefleet Road opposite the junction with Scotterthorpe Road.  Later the Page's had a daughter they named Dorothy.

In the picture above he can be seen holding his pipe and the two chevrons on his left arm sleeve woulld have been awarded for 6 years good conduct in the Army.  During that time he would return home on leave to Scotterthorpe.

The 2nd Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment were part of the 9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division, Second Corps of the British Expeditionary Force.

In 1940 they were involved in the battles preceding the evacuation at Dunkirk.  Although the last of Allied armies were taken off the beaches on 4th June, he was 'at large' for a further 4 days before being captured at Forges, Normandy.

He was one of the 30,000 taken prisoner by the Germans in this campaign.  There were no camps in the west so prisoners were marched on foot all the way across Europe to their final destinations.

He was detained in Poland as prisoner 5853 in Stalag XXIB prison camp at Schubin (now Szubin).  On 11th April 1941 he was transferred to Stalag XXID at Posen (now Poznan).

Finally on 9th September 1943 he was moved to Stalag IVA at Elsterhorst near Hoyerswerda, Saxony, Germany.

After spending more than 3 years in captivity he contracted tuberculosis.  Some prisoners were given a medical repatriation but he died from the disease at Reserve Lazarett Elsterhorst-Hoyerswerda, a military hospital.  There he was buried.

In 1945 Lance Corporal Albert Snell was re-interred in the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery.

After the cessation of hostilities many men in other graves were brought to this cemetery.

The great majority were airmen lost in the air raids over Berlin and the eastern cities.

The rest were men like Albert who died as prisoners of war.