Payments to POW's?

[lucanor1]

My grandfather (Pte James Grimes, 2 Connaught Rangers) was captured in August 1914, and was a POW for the remainder of the war. When he reurned to Limerick after the war, would he have received any payment for his 4 years service? Any information gratefully received.

MarieE

[Aaron Pegram]

Hi Marie,

His military pay would have been suspended whilst he was a POW, however it was one of the terms under the Hague Convention that he be paid for any manual work he did whilst in captivity. This would not have been much, 5 pfenings a week if that. I may be wrong, but I think I've read somewhere that military payments to POW went towards the dispatch of Red Cross parcels. Either way, there would not have been a nest egg waiting for him in Limerick when he returned.

I hope this helps,

Cheers,

Aaron

[jim_davies]

Hi Marie,

I have heard different things regarding pay of pows etc. In one of LynnMcDonald's books there is the account of a man from the RN Division who was interned by the Dutch in 1914. He escaped and returned to the UK in 1915, on the first pay parade once he rejoined his unit, he caused a stir having to carry his backdated pay away in coins in his cap...

I know that many communities set up funds for the provisions for local lads taken POW. At the end of the war, the Stamford

POW fund gave each returning POW a pound for each year he was a POW.

Jim

[Doug Johnson]

Hi,

PoWs received their pay whilst incarcerated. They usually received some in Germany to pay for whatever they could buy. If they worked they were paid for it and this did not affect their soldiers pay. Some of their pay would have been paid as an allowance to their wife, if they had one, or their mother etc. Unlike the American Red Cross (ie the US Government), the British Red cross do not seem to have provided parcels for PoW's. All British Red Cross parcels were paid for by relatives or local organisations etc apart from uniforms which were provided by their regiment.

Aaron, 5pf seems as a bit low. I think 25pf per day was about the pay of a farm labourer and many more skilled workers received as much as 5M per day.

Doug