"Where There's A Will", a musical comedy in three acts, rewritten and produced by Tom Hill and George Hussey. The tall man at the back right, wearing glasses and a tie, is Eric Blackwell. When war broke out, he was a steward aboard the Lamport & Holt cruise liner "Vandyck", which was commandeered by the Royal Navy to transport troops to Norway. On the 10th June 1940, the ship was bombed and sunk inside the Arctic Circle. He and other survivors made shore on the Lofoten Islands where they were taken prisoner and sent to Denmark by cattle truck, and then to a transit camp in Wilhelmshaven before being sent on to BAB 20. Here they were put to work for 10 hours a day on construction of an autobahn. They entertained themselves with concerts and shows, obtaining materials by bartering with the local population. On the 22nd January 1945, the camp was evacuated and the prisoners began the long march westwards, existing on a diet of weak soup and black bread, with a day's rest every four days. Blackwell lost all of his teeth on the march when a guard hit him with a rifle butt. The 1,400 mile march ended 50 miles short of Nuremberg where they were overtaken by American troops. He returned to the UK on the 23rd April 1945 and spent six months recuperating at HMS Mersey. Blackwell continued to indulge in amateur dramatics with both the Reliance Works and Upton Dramatic Society in Chester. Copyright: T.G. Stroud.