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Two pages of Robert Dickinson’s journal, “Servigliano Calling,” contain names and addresses of 20 fellow prisoners. These are listed here:
Denis Crooks
141. Parkanaur Avenue. Thorpe Bay.
Southend-on-Sea. Essex.
Frederick Druce
Sunny Side. New Road. Tyler’s Green.
High Wycombe. Bucks.
Charles A. Woolnough
15. Ancill Street. Hammersmith. W.6.
London
Micheal W. Lacy
37. Hampstead Lane. Highgate.
London S.E.6.
Robert Dickinson’s journal, “Servigliano Calling,” contains 34 poems. The twelve identified poets whose works appear in the journal are:
C.A. Hollis, J.R. Cromley, A. Forman, Corporal D. Nevitt, H. Stewart, Denis Crooks, G.A. Crawford, C.G. Hooper-Rogers, Alec. Forman, Bombardier P.G. Whapples, Harry Stewart, and F. Chiltern.
One poem, The Alphabet, is simply attributed to “a South African.”
Only the addresses of two of the poets are recorded in the journal. They are:
Denis Crooks
141. Parkanaur Avenue. Thorpe Bay.
Southend-on-Sea. Essex.
George A. Crawford
259. Ivydale Road. Waverly Park.
London. S.E. 15.
This diagram of the bunk bed construction in the huts of Camp 59 was drawn by Neil Torssell.
The following interview between former Camp 59 prisoner Neil Torssell and Dennis Hill was recorded on October 30, 2008. The interviewer’s questions and comments are in italic.
When we talked before, you told me about your years in the service from start to finish. And when you wrote to me in the past you described being in the camp, but you didn’t say a lot about what daily life was like there.
I made a list of things I would like to ask you about today.
When my dad was in the camp, he was in Hut 4, Section 11. You had mentioned to me there were big barracks that had bunk beds. You sent me a drawing of the bed construction. Does the organization of hut and section number sound familiar to you?
I don’t remember anything like that. Was he in the building where they were digging the tunnel?
No, I don’t believe so, but he said he had heard about the digging of a tunnel.
That wasn’t known about until the Italians had practically quit. It was only then we found out about it, because there were just a few of them [the prisoners] involved in digging.
In the hut that you were in—or barracks—did the Italians come in at night to make sure that nothing was going on, or when you went to sleep at night were you left alone until morning?
Well, they patrolled the barracks all night. They patrolled periodically. I don’t know if there was any particular schedule. We didn’t pay attention to them. As far as how far apart the patrols were—if there were as many on the outside as the inside—I couldn’t tell you that.
