Roy Courlander

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Roy Courlander

Nickname	Reg
Born	(1914-12-06)6 December 1914 London, United Kingdom
Died	1979 Lethbridge Park, New South Wales, Australia
Allegiance	New Zealand (to 1941) Nazi Germany (to 1944)
Years of service	1939-1941; 1943-1944
Unit	British Free Corps
Battles/wars	World War II Western Desert Campaign Battle of Greece

Roy Nicolas Courlander, (6 December 1914 – 1979), nicknamed 'Reg', was a member of the German Waffen-SS British Free Corps and former member of the British Union of Fascists.

Biography

Early life

Born illegitimately, Courlander was adopted by Lithuanian Jewish businessman, Leonard Henry Courlander (1878–1970) and Edith Cater (1898-?), who sent him to boarding school. When he was 19, his parents divorced and he was sent to live and work on a coconut plantation owned by his father in the New Hebrides in the South Pacific. In November 1938, Courlander arrived in New Zealand and found work as a clerk with the Land and Income Tax Department in Wellington. On the outbreak of war, Courlander was enlisted into the New Zealand army, and served in the Western Desert and Greece, where he was captured in April 1941.^[1]

Military life

He joined the New Zealand Army and was captured in Greece in 1941. Courlander posed as a “White Russian émigré” and claimed to have extreme anti-Soviet views. He participated in the Nazi broadcast into Britain.

Subsequently, the Germans recruited Courlander for the British Free Corps. Although the name 'Leonard Courlander' appears in some records in connection with the British Free Corps, the actual member appears to be Roy Courlander. Along with Thomas Cooper, he is said to have forcibly recruited British and Dominion POWs for the British Free Corps.

Courlander and another man, Francis Maton, left the BFC by volunteering for service with the war correspondent unit SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers, which was operating on the Western Front. Their ultimate goal was to make for the Allied lines at the first chance. Courlander removed all of the BFC insignia from their uniforms, replacing them with the standard SS patches and rank. The two men boarded a train for Brussels in the company of a Flemish Waffen-SS unit. On 3 September, the two men arrived in Brussels, where they went into hiding rather than face the advancing Allied army. The following day, they gave themselves up to a British officer, thus becoming the first two BFC men to be arrested.^[1]

Lance Corporal Courlander was arrested and tried by court martial by the New Zealand military authorities in Margate, England, and on 3 October 1945, six years to the day after enlisting, Roy was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 1946, he was transferred to Mount Eden prison in Auckland, New Zealand, until his release in 1951.

Later life

After serving his time, Courlander moved to Australia in the early 1950s to start a new life, but spent his last years moving between homes. He ended up in a small industrial town of Lethbridge Park, two hours' drive from Sydney, which at the time was home to many serving and former soldiers. His last known address was a ground-floor council flat in a graffiti-scarred rundown block.^[1]

He died in Australia in 1979.^[2]

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Guy Walters (22 March 2010). "Hitler's British SS: Chilling pictures of the traitors who joined the Fuhrer's most evil unit - with a Union Flag on their sleeve | Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
↑ Stone, Andrew (15 August 2009). "The war in black and white". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 6 November 2011.

v t e Far right in the United Kingdom

Pre-1945 groups	British Brothers League British Fascists British People's Party British Union of Fascists The Britons Britons Publishing Society English National Association Imperial Fascist League The Link National Fascisti National Party National Socialist League Nordic League

Defunct post-1945 groups	British Democratic Party British Empire Party British Freedom Party British League of Ex-Servicemen and Women British League of Rights British Movement British National Party Column 88 Constitutional Movement Flag Group Freedom Party Greater Britain Movement League of Empire Loyalists National Democratic Party National Democrats National Fellowship National Independence Party National Labour Party National Party National Socialist Action Party National Socialist Movement New Britain Party New Nationalist Party Northern League Official National Front Our Nation Patriotic Party Racial Preservation Society Spearhead Union Movement White Defence League White Nationalist Party

Active groups	Blood & Honour Britain First British Democratic Party British National Party British People's Party Candour Casuals United Christian Council of Britain Combat 18 England First Party English Defence League International Third Position League of Saint George National Front National Socialist Movement Nationalist Alliance November 9th Society Racial Volunteer Force Redwatch Stop Islamisation of Europe Woden's Folk

Pre-1945 people	Mary Sophia Allen John Amery Henry Hamilton Beamish John Beckett MP Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford Brigadier-General R.B.D. Blakeney A. K. Chesterton MC Dr John Henry Clarke Thomas Haller Cooper Roy Courlander Admiral Sir Barry Domville Henry Drummond Wolff MP Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll Major Sir William Evans-Gordon MP Robert Forgan MP Sir Harold Elsdale Goad Sir Reginald Goodall Captain Robert Gordon-Canning MC Group Captain Sir Louis Leisler Greig Neil Francis Hawkins Major-General J.F.C. Fuller William Joyce Arnold Leese Rotha Lintorn-Orman Frank McLardy The Hon. Diana Mitford, Lady Mosley The Hon. Unity Mitford Lady Cynthia Mosley Sir Oswald Mosley Gerard Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale Sir Alliott Verdon Roe Alexander Raven Thomson Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton Hutchison Nesta H. Webster Arthur Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington Henry Williamson Brigadier-General Sir Ormaonde de L'Epee Winter

Post-1945 people	Tim Ablitt Ian Anderson Richard Barnbrook A.F.X. Baron Derek Beackon John Bean Jane, Lady Birdwood Eddy Butler Jonathan Bowden Andrew Brons MEP Kevin Bryan A.K. Chesterton Mark Collett David Copeland Mark Cotterill Nicky Crane Simon Darby Sharon Ebanks Richard Edmonds Lieutenant Commander Andrew Fountaine Nick Griffin MEP Jeffrey Hamm Anthony Hancock Patrick Harrington Ray Hill Derek Holland Tom Holmes Colin Jordan Arthur Kemp John Kingsley Read Alan Lake Richard Lawson Tony Lecomber Michael McLaughlin Eddy Morrison John Morse David Myatt John O'Brien Roy Painter Denis Pirie Kevin Quinn Anthony Reed Herbert Robert Relf Tommy Robinson Simon Sheppard Ian Stuart Donaldson Keith Thompson John Tyndall Richard Verrall Martin Webster Martin Wingfield John Graeme Wood

Related articles	Anglo-German Fellowship Battle of Cable Street British National Party election results Europe a Nation List of British fascist parties List of British far right groups since 1945 National Democrats election results National Front election results Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies Political Soldier

Persondata
Name	Courlander, Roy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 December 1914
Place of birth	London
Date of death	1979
Place of death	Lethbridge Park, New South Wales, Australia

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