72521 2nd-Lieutenant John Bond Bassett , aged 28, was a printer by trade, the third son of Mr & Mrs W R Bassett of Bromley. In July 1940 the local newspaper reported that his parents had received word from the War Office that he had been injured:
“He was in the severe fighting following the German breakthrough and after the evacuation of Dunkirk it was believed that he had been brought back, though he was known to have been wounded. Nothing definite, however, could be ascertained and on June 17th his parents received notification from the War Office that he was admitted to a casualty clearing station on May 28, with a gunshot wound in the left leg.
Since then it has been impossible to get any further information and it is feared he became a prisoner of war as the German army advanced.”
A later report was published in September of 1940 confirming thathe had been taken prisoner.
Prisoners of War
SECOND-LIEUTENANT JOHN B. BASSETT
Mr and Mrs W.R. Bassett, 144 Murray Avenue, Bromley, have received a short message from their third son, Second Lieutenant John B. Bassett, R.A., in which he states that he is a prisoner of war in Germany.
On June 17th his parents received a communication from the War Office which said that on May 28th Second-Lieutenant Bassett had been admitted to a casualty clearing station with a gunshot wound in his left leg, and that as no further news had been received of him, it was feared that he had been taken prisoner as the enemy advanced. In his note, Second-Lieutenant Bassett says that his wound is progressing well.
Second-Lieutenant Bassett, with the exception of one spell of leave, had been with his unit in France since the outbreak of war. His regiment was the one referred to in a recent article in the Kentish Times, in which it was described how an artillery regiment fought a successful action against infinitely greater German odds, an action which was vital to the success of the withdrawal to Dunkirk.
Aged 28, Second-Lieutenant Bassett is an Old Boy of Bromley County School, and continued his education at King’s, Canterbury, where he became a member of Bromley Town Tennis Club, but later took up golf and joined the Farringham Club.
Source:
First report; Bromley & Kentish Times, 12th July 1940 (page 5)
Second report; Bromley & District Times, 6th September 1940
