Sydney and Ernest Joiner - Crete Campaign

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fw200condor
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Joined: 10 Jan 2022, 11:58
Location: New Zealand

Sydney and Ernest Joiner - Crete Campaign

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Post by fw200condor » 11 Jan 2022, 10:40

I am interested in any information you might have on the Australian, Sid Joiner, one of James Carstairs' heroes on Crete, or his brother, Ernie.

Sid, an infantryman born November 30, 1915, was one of the people left behind on Crete with Carstairs after the initial evacuation and survived on the run from the Nazis for months with the aid of the locals and by living on snails, etc, at times, before finally escaping. He finished the war in a non-combat role as a quartermaster, before returning to his occupation as a professional fisherman.

There is a newspaper article about him here:


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theage ... oytbf.html

Here is an interview with him from the 1940s:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/arti ... 22%20crete

NAA record here:

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchN ... ?B=6228964


I know less about Ernie (born 20 October, 1913 and also an infantryman). Here is his NAA record:

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchN ... ?B=6228977

As per that record, he was captured in Crete and held at Stalag 344. I have heard a vague stiry that he escaped or tried to escape once, too. Whether that was in the Stalag or while in a temporary holding camp on Crete, I don't know. I'd appreciate any information about this.

After the war, he was a painter and decorator and part-time fisherman. Post-war, he was also a good friend of Australian cartoonist, Alex Gurney, of "Bluey and Curley" fame:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand ... artoonist)

A third brother, Keith, was too young to enlist in the war. He later guarded Italian prisoners at one of the POW camps in Victoria, Australia while allegedly running an illegal underground casino(!)

Unfortunately, by all accounts, their father, Daniel Joiner of Newmerella, was a brutal, deeply unpleasant man.

Does anyone know anything else about these larrikin brothers?


Daniel

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