Person:Neil Wales (4)

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Neil McLean Wales
b.14 Mar 1921 City of Glasgow, Scotland
d.20 Apr 1997 Livingston, Scotland
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m. 18 Feb 1946
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Facts and Events
Name Neil McLean Wales
Gender Male
Birth? 14 Mar 1921 City of Glasgow, Scotland
Marriage 18 Feb 1946 City of Glasgow, ScotlandRuchil Church
to Catherine Kerr
Death? 20 Apr 1997 Livingston, ScotlandSt Johns Hospital

Neil was adopted as a baby and lived with his adoptive parents in Glasgow. His father was a shipwright, presumably in one of the, then, many Clyde shipyards

Neil joined the Merchant Navy and during the war his ship was commissioned by the Royal Navy either for protection duties on convoys or with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary supplying Royal Naval vessels.

His ship was torpedoed while in the Atlantic and he was subsequently taken POW to French West Africa unde the Vichy regime. He bribed one of the guards with a watch and he and two others "escaped" while the guard was "looking the other way". He made his way back to British or neutral territory where he managed to find a space on a ship back to Britain.

The experience seems to have stirred the travel bug - within a few years he was packing up and heading back across the water, this time to Kenya.

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