Ion Ferguson

Ion Ferguson with RAF 30 Squadron, Greece 1941

Ion Ferguson Royal Army Medical Corps (1913-1990) was an Irish volunteer for the British army who escaped from Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, during the Second World War.

Ferguson was captured by the Germans in Greece in 1941 and held as a POW until 1945. Ferguson was moved to Colditz Castle after protesting to the German authorities about the treatment of prisoners. According to Punch magazine, "Dr. Ferguson is a typical Irish rebel who kicked against the authority of senior officers until becoming a P.O.W., when he would not allow the Germans to ill-treat anyone without voluble protest. His intransigence landed him in Colditz..."

Whilst incarcerated in Colditz in a ploy to get the attention of the German authorities, Ferguson wrote a letter to an Irish friend, the son of Eamon De Valera, the Irish Taoiseach, in which he called for Ireland to join the war on the Allies' side. As intended the letter was stopped by the German censors but his wish to be moved to another prison camp was granted and he was moved to Stalag IV-D. In Stalag IV-D he certified a number of prisoners as insane, who were consequently repatriated before he convinced the Germans of his own insanity and returned to Britain the same way.

Ferguson is described by the Lancashire Telegraph as a 'brave, no-nonsense Irish doctor'.

Ferguson wrote a biography of his wartime experiences in Doctor at War (1957).

Bibliography

Doctor at War, Panter Books, (1957)