boots
N° d'objetM2019/057:001b
Titreboots
DescriptionArmy boot (right) worn by Harry Wigglesworth who served in the British Army from 1939-1946. The pair of boots, his second army issue that he received in 1944, were worn into France and Germany with the Allied invasion forces. They walked into Bergen-Belsen concentration camp where Harry and his division arrived on 15 April 1945 as Liberators. Harry marched home wearing them to Leeds, England in 1946, and they came with him to Australia in 1981.
Harry Wigglesworth was born 6 July 1916 in Leeds, Yorkshire County, England, to Thomas Henry and Mary Ellen Wigglesworth. Harry and his brother Harold joined the Army Reserves just before war broke out in August 1939. He volunteered to join a transport division as a dispatch rider. At end of 1941, Harry was sent to a training battalion as an instructor of an army camp in Wiltshire. In 1943 he joined an armoured division that experimented with new tanks, during which time he was badly injured in a motorbike accident. After recovering he was transferred to a light accac division in the Allied 21st Army Group, a combined British-Canadian unit including the British 11th Armoured Division. He arrived in Normandy and his group was attached to the 5th Tank Division of the Canadian army. It was his job to supply the tanks with ammunition and petrol. They continued through France, Belgium, Holland and finally into Germany.
When they came to Bergen-Belsen Harry recalls the “terrible smell,” which lingered in the air around the clock. “I saw all the ovens, all the skeletons, all the piles of bodies, I saw all that.” Harry recalls of his experience “We’d just done six years of war; we thought we’d seen everything. I had nightmares for over two years when I got home. Terrible.”
Harry Wigglesworth was born 6 July 1916 in Leeds, Yorkshire County, England, to Thomas Henry and Mary Ellen Wigglesworth. Harry and his brother Harold joined the Army Reserves just before war broke out in August 1939. He volunteered to join a transport division as a dispatch rider. At end of 1941, Harry was sent to a training battalion as an instructor of an army camp in Wiltshire. In 1943 he joined an armoured division that experimented with new tanks, during which time he was badly injured in a motorbike accident. After recovering he was transferred to a light accac division in the Allied 21st Army Group, a combined British-Canadian unit including the British 11th Armoured Division. He arrived in Normandy and his group was attached to the 5th Tank Division of the Canadian army. It was his job to supply the tanks with ammunition and petrol. They continued through France, Belgium, Holland and finally into Germany.
When they came to Bergen-Belsen Harry recalls the “terrible smell,” which lingered in the air around the clock. “I saw all the ovens, all the skeletons, all the piles of bodies, I saw all that.” Harry recalls of his experience “We’d just done six years of war; we thought we’d seen everything. I had nightmares for over two years when I got home. Terrible.”
Lieu de créationEngland
Date 1944 - 1944
Nom d'objetshoes
Matérielleather
Dimensions
- width: 110.00 mm
length: 298.00 mm
height: 175.00 mm
Ligne de créditSydney Jewish Museum Collection, Donated by Harry Wigglesworth