WW2 Vatican Enquiry Bureau

[Jim Mackay]

Apart from a couple of brief mentions in newspapers I haven't been able to find out anything about the Vatican Enquiry Bureau. This 1943 cover from Catterick Camp to London has a cachet on the LHS of S.C.F.  R.C. Catterick Camp. Under the reuse label the envelope was originally addressed to Father John Ryan, Chaplain, Catterick Camp.
Any info would be appreciated.

Jim

[Peter Harvey]

Hi Jim,

So I would suggest Father John Ryan was the Senior or Scottish Chaplin to the Armed Forces (Roman Catholic) SCF RC at Catterick at this time and clearly used the envelope to forward any enquiry to the Vatican. There remains a Vatican Enquiry Bureau today I think.... but I can find little reference to this.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C786182 links to the SCF RC

Peter

[Michael Dobbs]

SCF is indeed Senior Chaplin to the Forces and RC is Roman Catholic.

Mike

[Michael Dobbs]

Jim

I have found this link - it relates to the Catholic Herald newspaper in 1942 and the article refers to the Vatican Information Bureau in Cavendish Square:
[url=http://archive-uat.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-september-1942/1/missing-relatives-post-arrives-at-the]http://archive-uat.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-september-1942/1/missing-relatives-post-arrives-at-the[/url]
"Enquiries should be sent to the Convent of the Holy Child, Cavendish Square, London, W.1, marked " Vatican Information Bureau.""

There is also this link which eventually provides a pdf document with the title "The Holy See and WWII Communications" - from the Postal History Journal No 143, June 2009:
[url=https://silo.tips/queue/the-holy-see-and-wwii-communications?&queue_id=-1&v=1603141895&u=ODAuMC4yMDkuMjMw]https://silo.tips/queue/the-holy-see-and-wwii-communications?&queue_id=-1&v=1603141895&u=ODAuMC4yMDkuMjMw[/url]

I hope these help.

Mike  :)

[Jim Mackay]

Excellent detective work!
Many thanks both.
Jim

[Marc Parren]

Hi Jim,
I collect Vatican message forms myself and I have quite a collection and also some philatelic literature on it. Since Catterick Camp was a POW camp during WWII I presume there were at least some Italian POW held over there as Italians made most use of this service provided by the Vatican. Hope this proves to be useful.
Marc

[Jim Mackay]

Hi Marc
That is most interesting.
I hadn't realised that Catterick was a POW camp. Unusual to see it named rather than numbered. The cover/enquiry makes more sense now.
Thank you.
Regards
Jim

[Michael Dobbs]

Thanks Marc, I hadn't realised Catterick Camp was also used as a POW camp in WW2.  There is very little online about this - plenty for its use as a POW camp in WW1.  I have, however, found the following:

From The Guardian - "Every prisoner of war camp in the UK mapped and listed"
[url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data]https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data[/url]
see Camps 631, 662 and 664

The only other reference is Wikipedia with the brief mention and that came from the above reference: "During the Second World War the camp was once again used to house prisoners of war":
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison[/url]

The above three camps are listed in Derek Tomlin's publication "World War II P.O.W. and Internment Camp" (date of publication not known; source of information not known)

Mike

[Jim Mackay]

The Guardian list is incomplete. For example POW Camp 5 was inside stately Duff House, Banff (and not built on the nearby golf course as another database has it). It was one of the "U boat hotels" until bombed by a Heinkel 111 on 22 July 1940, killing five crewmen from the U 26 and injuring many more. Possibly the only 'friendly fire' casualties on British soil during WW2. Most of the POW there were subsequently moved to Camp 2 (Oldham, Lancs, although there were two other Camp 2s!) before being shipped to Canada on 22 December 1940.
Jim