Alloway & Doonfoot Memories

Alasdair Wham’s, presentation takes us back in time with some memories surrounding “Memories of Alloway and Doonfoot”.

Alasdair graduated in Chemistry from Glasgow University, was in management for 16 years, eventually becoming deputy head teacher at Greenwood Academy in Irvine, before retiring.

He has always been interested in writing, and initially fulfilled the urge by writing eight books about exploring disused railways and researching local history.

Using excellent historic slides, many aerial shots to support his presentation, Alasdair took his audience on a whistle stop tour around our local area, highlighting the history of the area, the old Alloway Station, the old laundry mill, the Alloway Nursery, the Alloway tunnel then and now and the old World War 2 prisoner of war camp situated on Greenan Road, Doonfoot where Axis prisoners were held, known as Bun Camp.

Alasdair highlighted the “Great Escape” from the Doonfoot camp.

On Greenan shore, not far from the road where Alasdair lives, there once was a Prisoner of War Camp – Camp 115. During the war, it was filled with Italian prisoners. Life in Nissen huts by the sea, exposed to the weather, must have been tough. They only got out of the camp to work on local farms. Years away from your family, knowing the war was going badly must have been discouraging. Toilet facilities were poor, there was little or no post from home, and Red Cross parcels frequently didn’t arrive. Morale was very low.

Frustration mounted, and in a daring escape on Friday, 15th December 1944, 97 Italian prisoners broke out. They used wood stolen from a truck delivering materials to the camp, dug and lined a tunnel, emerged on the shore and fled. It was the biggest escape of enemy prisoners ever in the United Kingdom.

It was more about protest than disrupting the enemy; most were soon recaptured. However, four are still listed as missing because their recapture was never reported to the police. Some made their escape along the nearby railway. Four were discovered in the attic of an Italian café in Ayr. All readily gave up when confronted.

Within days most were returned to the camp, and an embarrassing incident for the authorities was quickly forgotten. Sometime after the war, Germans arrived to replace the Italians.

Douglas Stuart Haddow gave a worthy vote of thanks