BOY WAR PRISONER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20632, 13 August 1941, Page 9

BOY WAR PRISONER

SURVIVOR OF ORAMA LONDON, July 19. One of the youngest British prisoners of war in Germany, Albert Oates, aged 15, deck boy of the Orama, has been “adopted” by the children of an isolated Canadian school in North Ontario. Albert, who comes from Tilbury, was captured when the Germans- sank his ship ofl Narvik. From a prison camp at Gleiwitz, Poland, he wrote to his mother, Mrs. E. Oates, for cigarettes and a mouth organ. She -could not get a mouth organ, so she wrote to Miss Christine Knowles, of the the Prisoners of War Books and Games Fund. On Miss Knowles’ desk lay a letter from Mr. William Hiscock, schools inspector, of Iroquois Falls, Ontario. He sent £ll, collected in pennies from the children of 15 Ontaria schools for .British prisoners of war. Each of the schools was allotted a prisoner,of its own. No. 1, Menapia school, Island Falls, got Albert O tes, and Constance Williston, the -’choolmistress, became his godmother. From the pennies subscribed bv these children from mining communities and the lonely farms of Ontario, Albert will get his mouth organ. Also he v/ill receive every quarter, a parcel of food and clothing, ana every month a parcel of six looks.