Fillmore County Flashback Donald Ward’s transatlantic ties

By Jane Skinner Peck

Staff at Lanesboro Museum

Our small city museum, packed with historic treasures, has captured the attention of the famed Suffolk County Archives in Ipswich, England. Suffolk County is located in the southeast corner of England. Suffolk Archives has branches in three towns in their county and the museums are responsible for 900 years of history. Lanesboro has its hands full with 150!

This partnership is possible thanks to the donation of the extensive Donald Ward Collection by his daughters Kay Evenson and Pat Feidler. Don Ward was an amateur historian and avid collector and many of us remember his infectious love of Lanesboro or one of his antique Magic Lantern shows! At the time of his passing in 2018, he had acquired the collections of all professional photographers of Lanesboro which were donated to both the Lanesboro Museum and the Fillmore County Historical Society.

In looking through Don’s first collection of photos, one in particular stood out, a large picture of soldiers marked “923rd Engineer Aviation Regiment, H & S Unit, England 1944, Don Ward Lieutenant in Charge.” The surprise was that all but four of the men were African Americans. I knew there was a good story to be uncovered.

In my online search for the 923rd regiment in England, I found the Suffolk Archives website, which stated they were looking for more information on the experiences of its American black troops in their county. I responded. Time passed before contact was made. In the interim their museum had mounted a fun and informative virtual exhibit of some of their findings. LHPA director Val Tindall and I explored the exhibit and came to understand that the U.S. Army in WWII was still segregated, with black troops generally in separate units. A majority of those troops were reluctantly in engineer regiments to do manual labor, usually with white leadership. Their task was to build airstrips to send our B52 bombers off to bomb Germany and surveille German troops in France. This was the case in Suffolk County, England, and there were many more black troops stationed there than were captured in Don’s photo.

The Suffolk website provided newspaper articles about the experience of black troops in their country. Most residents of Suffolk welcomed the troops. White U.S. airmen, many from the south, were unhappy with their presence. Suffolk residents created special canteens and recreation centers just for the safety and comfort of black troops. Newspapers wrote that local residents found black soldiers to be far more polite and enjoyable than their white counterparts. The black troops formed a choir which became quite famous in England, even performing in London’s famed Albert Hall. Our museum will soon receive a photo of the 923rd regimental choir at Albert Hall.

Fortunately, Don’s daughters were also willing to share his scrapbooks with war photos and memories that show the span of his service. After Don attended civil engineer training in the Army he was in leadership training in Florida, where he witnessed black soldiers rebelling at

unfair treatment. His later letters make it appear that he came to an understanding of their situation. His English photos include pictures of the men at work, pictures of the headquarters, the English towns, and even pictures of an English flame! It is these memories and photos taken by Don that have been shared with the Suffolk County museum. The unit photo, which started it all, appears to be still full of mystery. The Library of Congress has no full African American unit portraits and local military historian Chuck St. Mane helped search for names of the men to no avail.

Corresponding with three women of the Suffolk Archives has been such a pleasure. We are grateful for their time. We have learned about Don Ward’s experience, as well as a little-known part of WWII history.

Formed in 2020, the Fillmore County History Partners is a voluntary collaborative of local history organizations and museums. Participants include: Canton Historical Society, Chatfield Historical Society, Fillmore County Historical Society, Harmony Area Historical Society, Historic Forestville, Lanesboro Historic Preservation Association, Lenora Pioneer Church, Mabel Historic Preservation, 1877 Peterson Station Museum, Preston Historical Society, Rushford Area Historical Society, Whalan Town Hall Museum, Wykoff Area Historical Society.