Search launched for Scots war prisoner captured by the Germans who then died of his wounds in camp

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The hunt is on to track down descendants of a Paisley Buddie who died of his battle wounds in a grim prisoner of war camp.Private Thomas Joseph Campbell was a Canadian infantryman enlisted to fight the German menace in the Great War.But he was captured on the battlefields of Europe and taken to the camp.Thomas died of his wounds aged 27 and now rests in the Roeselare Communal Cemetery in Belgium.Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.His story has now taken another international turn more than a century later after a woman in Buffalo, New York State found his war “pins”.Jennifer Reid revealed she found the WW1 items within a box of old photographs her late father had been passed down.And Jennifer,54, said: “I’m trying so desperately to find the family of this fallen hero.”A plaque remembering the war dead which hangs in Paisley’s St Mary’s church in George Street lists TJ Campbell, who died on May 26, 1915.He had gone off to war with the 13th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry after he was enlisted in Quebec on September 23, 1914.Pvt Campbell had lasted eight months on the Western Front and it is not known when he was captured.His father was also Thomas Campbell and his mum was Catherine, of 4 Clavering Street in Paisley.Though he was a machinist before he went to fight, he had been in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders for three years, so he would have emigrated to Canada as an adult.His Paisley family had been members of St Mary’s Church, which opened in 1891.And it may well be if he was a machinist, that the family were involved in the thread trade in the town.Jennifer suspects Thomas may have known her grandfather or great uncles who all fought for the Canadian