Second-Lieutenant John B. Bassett of the Royal Artillery, was reported as a Prisoner of War in the Bromley & District Times newspaper on 6th September 1940.
His parents, Mr and Mrs W.R. Bassett of 144 Murray Avenue, Bromley, received a short message from their third son, in which he stated that he was a prisoner of war in Germany.
His parents had received news from the War Office on 17th June 1940 which said that on 28th May their son 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 was 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.
