Alfredo Guiseppe Donnini was born on the 28th February 1918, one of ten children of Alfredo Pellegrino Donnini, [born 11th October 1883, Castelnuovo, Italy, died 27th February 1950], and Catherine, nee Brown, [born 11th August 1889 at Sacriston, died 1965], at 8 Seaside lane, Easington Colliery. They were married in 1907.

Alfredo Pellegrino Donnini had emigrated to England in 1899, with his sister Mira Donnini (born 1892, Castelnuovo, Italy, {married a John C. Allen in 1916}, died 1939). He was a confectioner and a billiards saloon proprietor. He never applied to be naturalized.

They originally resided at Front Street, South Moor, where they occupied an ice-cream shop, with two assistants Piani Plessandoa and Fontana Settino.

By 1911 the family had moved to 11 Main Street, Ferryhill. Mira Donnini, now aged 19, [died June 1939], Lewis Deno, born 1907, died 1st May 1944, married Ethel nee Foley, resided at 7 Seaside Lane, Veronica, born 1908, {married a Celestino Passerotti in 1927}, died 1989, Caterina, born 1908, baptised 9th August 1908, Edward, born 1910, died 2nd July 1931, Doris, born 1914 died 1915, Rinalda N, born 1920, died 1920, Silvia, born 23rd December 1921, {married Donald Putsman in 1946}, died 2004, Corrina Madalena born 22nd August 1923, died 1993 and Dennis Donnini, born 17th November 1925.

In 1936, now aged 18, Alfredo Guiseppe was aboard the S.S. Rawalpindi, ship number 147827, as a cook. Alfredo arrived in Plymouth on the 30th July 1936 from Port Said via London. His C.R. 2 card shows him next being engaged from the 3rd May 1937 aboard the 'Tynefield ship number 149405, Motor, 3475 tons at North Shields.

The M.V. Tynefield was an Oil Tanker, built in 1926 and launched on the 30th November 1925, completed January 1926. Built by Sir James Laing & Sons Ltd., Deptford, Deptford Yard 694. Engine builder, William Doxford & Sons Ltd. Owned by Hunting Steamship Co. Ltd. - Hunting & Son, Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was mined on the 5th October 1941.

In 1939 Alfredo married Gladys Thompson [born 10th September 1921], and was residing at 31 Thorpe Street, Easington Colliery, Durham. They had a son Richard Donnini, born 31st January 1939 residing with them. Alfredo by this time was a Oxide and Cable Works General Labourer.

Alfredo Guiseppe enlisted into the 9th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, service number 427581. It was organised as a Machine Gun Battalion and on the outbreak of the war was in Northumbrian Area, Northern Command. On the 2nd October 1939 it was attached to the 23rd Northumbrian Division (under command for labour duties and training, though not a Divisional Unit) and proceeded to France with them in April 1940.
After Dunkirk, the Battalion left the 23rd Division on the 29th June as the division was disbanded. It was under command of Home Forces until January 1942, when it was transferred to Malaya Command, landing at Singapore a few days before the fall of the island. It went into Japanese POW camps after the brief but violent week-long Battle of Singapore.

He was reported missing in July 1940, but later reported that he had been captured and was a Prisoner of War. He was interned at Stalag 20a, located at Thorn Podgorz, POW No. 7079, in Poland.

Stalag XX-A was a German World War II prisoner of war camp located in Thorn/Toruń, Poland. It was not a single camp and contained as many as 20,000 men at its peak. The main camp was located in a complex of fifteen forts that surrounded the whole of the city. The forts had been built at the end of the 19th century to defend the western border of Kingdom of Prussia. In September 1939 some of the forts were used as POW camps for Polish prisoners, specifically those captured after the surrender of the Polish fort at Westerplatte at the mouth of the river Vistula and on the Hel Peninsula. In June 1940 additional forts were added to the camp to accommodate British soldiers. The first to arrive were 403 men from the Allied campaign in Norway. Later about 4,500 arrived from Dunkirk and subsequently from the British 51st (Highland) Infantry Division captured at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. In 1941 and 1942 Soviet prisoners arrived. At the peak there were about 10,000 prisoners at the camp. However many of them were located in sub-camps. The camp was liberated on the 1st February 1945 by the Soviet Army.

When early January 1945 the Russian troops advanced from the East, the prisoners of Stalag 20A were marched out into Germany, through a Polish winter, sleeping in the open and eating pig swill to survive. Many men died during this march. The survivors were finally liberated by the Americans, far in Germany. Fort XIV, the camp hospital, was liberated by the Russians on January 21st 1945. The cemetery of Stalag 20A contains over 60 000 inmates were processed through Stalag 20A over a period of five years, including Poles, French, Belgians, British, Yugoslavs, Russians, Norwegians, Italians and Americans. British POWs were buried in the garrison military cemetery (we found cemeteries next to forts XI and XVI), while Russian POWs were buried in a mass grave in the forest near Stalag 312, between Glinki and Cierpice. About 14,000 men are buried there.

There was a letter written to a friend by Corporal Robert Fisher of the Signals R.A.F., and in peacetime on the advertising staff of the Newcastle Chronicle and Journal Ltd, from beyond the Rhine. He tells of interesting meetings with liberated Tyneside prisoners of war, one of whom was a brother of Fusilier Dennis Donnini, the Easington Colliery lad of 19 who was awarded the VC posthumously. I told Donnini all I knew about his brother, says Corporal Fisher, and the poor chap was very cut up, as when he was taken prisoner in 1940 with the Northumberland Fusiliers his young brother was still at school. I contacted a lad from Easington, and he found a newspaper sent by his wife, with a full account of the award and photo. Donnini showed the paper to all his comrades, tucked the paper carefully in his pocket and set off home.

Source : Newcastle Evening Chronicle Monday 30/05/1945.

Alfredo Giuseppe Donnini died in 1990. He is not remembered on a North East War Memorial.

70th Brigade
POW Experience
Rare Photos of Stalag 20a