{{Short description|New Zealander Nazi collaborator}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=January 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox military person | name = Roy Courlander | birth_date = {{birth date|1914|12|06|df=y}} | death_date = 1 June 1979 (aged 64) | image = Roy_Courlander.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_place = London, England | death_place = Lethbridge Park, New South Wales, Australia | nickname = Reg | allegiance ={{flagcountry|Dominion of New Zealand}} (to 1941)<br />{{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}} (to 1944)<br />{{flagdeco|BEL}} Belgian Resistance (Alleged) (1944) | service_years = 1939–1941; 1943–1944 | rank = | commands = | unit = British Free Corps | battles = {{tree list}} * World War II ** Western Desert Campaign ** Battle of Greece {{tree list/end}} | awards = | other_work = }}
'''Roy Nicolas Courlander''' (6 December 1914 – 1 June 1979), nicknamed 'Reg', was a British-born New Zealand soldier who became an Unterscharführer<ref>Weale, Adrian (12 November 2014). Renegades (Kindle Location 2342). Random House. Kindle Edition</ref> in the German Waffen-SS British Free Corps during the Second World War.
==Early life== Born out of wedlock in December 1914, Courlander was adopted by Lithuanian Jewish businessman Leonard Henry Courlander (1878–1970) and Edith Cater (1898–1970), 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. His mother married Frederick Bohne in 1933 and eventually moved to New Zealand in the 1950s where she died in 1970. His father remarried Gwendoline Elmes and moved to Sydney, Australia.
In November 1938, Courlander arrived in New Zealand and found work as a clerk with the Land and Income Tax Department in Wellington. On 10 April 1939 he was arrested and convicted and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment for breaking and entering a Napier house of Kathleen Reeston with John Matterson and Geoffrey Keen.<ref>"RATHER SERIOUS", Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 85, 12 April 1939, Page 10</ref><ref>Arrest of witness, New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23357, 27 May 1939, Page 15</ref> Courlander and Keen's sentences were reduced on appeal to 18 months probation from 14 June 1939.<ref>Appeals succeed, Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 138, 14 June 1939, Page 9</ref> Courlander held that his reason for going to the house was for a meal and that this was at Keen's invitation.<ref>Entering a house, Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 17, 20 July 1939, Page 22</ref> Courlander moved to Auckland on 30 September 1939 and married Joan Beryl Marchand there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5c41/courlander-roy-nicolas |title=Courlander, Roy Nicolas – Biography – Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand |website=Teara.govt.nz |accessdate=30 June 2016}}</ref>
==Military life - Allies==
===New Zealand Army=== On the outbreak of war, Courlander was enlisted into the New Zealand Military Forces. Because of his knowledge of French and German he was placed in the Intelligence Corps. He sailed for Egypt on RMS ''Orion'' and served in Greece with the 18th Battalion.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C134211 |title=Roy Nicolas Courlander |via=Online Cenotaph |publisher=Auckland War Memorial Museum |access-date=7 July 2022}}</ref> In December 1940 he was promoted to Lance-Corporal. At Kalamata, Greece on 29 April 1941 he was captured and interned in Stalag XVIII-D at Maribor in Yugoslavia.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
===Prisoner-of-war=== As a prisoner of war, Courlander acted as an interpreter at the camp. He joined work parties in Austria and eventually in September 1943 was sent to Genshagen camp (Stalag III-D/517) in Berlin. Courlander posed as a "White Russian émigré" {{where|date=July 2015}} and claimed to have extreme anti-Soviet views. He participated in Nazi broadcasts to the United Kingdom.
==Military life - Germans==
===British Free Corps=== Subsequently, the Germans recruited Courlander in January 1944 for the British Free Corps. He was one of the original six members. 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{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} recruited British and Dominion POWs for the British Free Corps. By April 1944 he was promoted to Unterscharführer (sergeant). At his court martial, statements were made that Courlander was seeking to oust John Amery and take control of the Corps.<ref>Alleged Help To Germany, The Times (London, England), Tuesday, 2 October 1945; pg. 2; Issue 50262</ref>
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 and Maton 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 1944, the two men arrived in Brussels, where they linked up with the Belgian Resistance. They participated in street fighting against the Germans, with Courlander being wounded during action. The following day, they gave themselves up to a British officer, thus becoming the first two BFC men to be arrested.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
After his capture, Courlander was interviewed by British military intelligence, likely MI5. He told them that Adolf Hitler had told BFC members that if Britain was defeated, the former King Edward VIII would replace George VI on the throne and Oswald Mosley would become the Prime Minister.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://humanevents.com/2006/09/28/astonishing-politician-astonishing-failure/ |title=Astonishing Politician, Astonishing Failure |publisher=Human Events |date=28 September 2006 |accessdate=30 June 2016}}</ref> Courlander also provided background information on the formation of the BFC.<ref>MI5's Report on the British Free Corps (BFC) dated 27 March 1945.</ref>
===Court martial and imprisonment=== Lance Corporal Courlander was arrested and tried by court martial by the New Zealand military authorities in Westgate-on-Sea near Margate in Kent, England. On 3 October 1945, six years to the day after enlisting, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on a charge of "voluntarily aiding the enemy".
Prosecuting officer Lieutenant-Colonel R.A.L Hillard said that Courlander produced a series of propaganda talks designed to show how the British had failed to keep to pledges after the First World War and Trooper J.E. Wilson gave evidence that Courlander had told him he was trying to persuade the Germans to allow a corps of free British to fight the Russians. Courlander pleaded not guilty to the charge and stated that he had joined the BFC to facilitate escaping, but as that did not eventuate had sought to find a way to control and use the unit against the Germans.<ref>Aid To Enemy Denied, The Times (London, England), Wednesday, 3 October 1945; pg. 2; Issue 50263</ref>
In 1946, Courlander was transferred to Mount Eden Prison in Auckland. Because the court martial did not dismiss him from the Army, Courlander was still entitled to wear his New Zealand Army uniform when out of prison for medical treatment, which he did in May 1946.<ref>Traitor still wearing uniform he disgraced, The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 31 May 1946, page 4</ref> His wife died while he was in prison. He appealed against his sentence, and in May 1950 it was reduced to 9 years. He was released on 2 October 1951 and married Margaret Spence the same day.<ref>Wants to meet his detractors, Townville Daily Bulletin, Townsville, Australia, 5 October 1951, page 6</ref>
==Later life== Courlander obtained a job working for a business directory company and during the late 1950s was involved in the New Zealand Social Credit Political League.<ref>{{Cite web |date=23 May 1957 |title=Social Credit League - Mr W.B. Owen Again Leader |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19570523.2.96 |access-date=9 September 2023 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz |publisher=The Press}}</ref> He moved to Australia during the 1960s to start a new life, divorcing his wife in 1968. He ended up in a small industrial town of Lethbridge Park, near Sydney, which at the time was home to many serving and former soldiers and also another former SS soldier. {{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
He died in Australia in 1979 at the age of 64.<ref name="NZ_Herald_10590842">{{cite news |url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/media-publishing-industry/news/article.cfm?c_id=707&objectid=10590842 |title=The war in black and white |author=Stone, Andrew |date=15 August 2009 |work=The New Zealand Herald |accessdate=6 November 2011}}</ref>
Archives New Zealand holds a record entitled 'Biography of "Roy Courlander - Traitor" by G Carr under reference [http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=20110377 R20110377].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Biography of "Roy Courlander - Traitor" by G Carr |url=https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE77473782 |access-date=2 July 2023 |website=ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz}}</ref>
==See also== * British Free Corps * List of members of the British Free Corps * Frank McLardy
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Weale, Adrian, ''Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen.'' London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994. {{ISBN|0-7515-1426-8}} * [http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=qubelfast&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=CS33767746&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 "Alleged Help To Germany."] Times, London, England, 2 October 1945: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 February 2015. * [http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=qubelfast&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=&docId=CS35078467&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0 "Aid To Enemy Denied."] Times, London, England, 3 October 1945: 2. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 February 2015.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Courlander, Roy}} Category:1914 births Category:1979 deaths Category:Military personnel from London Category:New Zealand military personnel of World War II Category:British adoptees Category:British military personnel who were court-martialled Category:Criminals from London Category:English fascists Category:SS non-commissioned officers Category:English broadcasters for Nazi Germany Category:Members of the British Free Corps Category:New Zealand fascists Category:New Zealand collaborators with Nazi Germany Category:New Zealand prisoners of war in World War II Category:Nazis convicted of crimes Category:People convicted by British military courts Category:Prisoners and detainees of the British military Category:Prisoners and detainees of New Zealand Category:British emigrants to New Zealand Category:Belgian resistance members Category:SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers personnel