Matthew Brown KOYLI

[surrey.winter]

Matthew Brown served with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. What I know about him is as follows:

1. His medal card gives his number as 45717

2. The Derbyshire Times of 14.12.1918 reported the following: “Mrs. Brown, of 248 Ashgate Road, Chesterfield, has received news through a Red Cross source that her husband Pte. Matthew Brown, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, died as the result of an accident on July 16, 1918. Mrs. Brown had not heard from her husband since March last when he wrote saying he was a prisoner of war. Deceased, who leaves a widow and two children, joined up in February 1917, and went to France the following August”

3. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record that the bodies of two British soldiers were buried at Premontre Asylum Military Cemetery (Aisne) in August and July 1918. Given the 17th July date of Matthew’s death his was likely the July burial. We know from correspondence received by the family that Matthew was buried at Premontre Asylum Military Cemetery (Aisne)

I'd love to find out more about how and where he died. Is anyone able to provide any pointers that might help?

[Doug Johnson]

It sounds like he died as a PoW "behind the lines". A large number of prisoners taken in the spring offensive were held behind the lines (contrary to agreements) working on unloading trains, burying the dead, digging trenches, moving munitions etc etc. Many of them were killed or died as a result of shelling or starvation. "Accident" may be the official German explanation but may not be correct. I do not know whether Premontre was behind the lines at that time so it would be worth checking. The timescale of several months being held behind the lines is not uncommon and at that point he would almost certainly be in a very weak condition.

Doug

[surrey.winter]

It sounds like he died as a PoW "behind the lines". A large number of prisoners taken in the spring offensive were held behind the lines (contrary to agreements) working on unloading trains, burying the dead, digging trenches, moving munitions etc etc. Many of them were killed or died as a result of shelling or starvation. "Accident" may be the official German explanation but may not be correct. I do not know whether Premontre was behind the lines at that time so it would be worth checking. The timescale of several months being held behind the lines is not uncommon and at that point he would almost certainly be in a very weak condition.

Doug

Doug - do you know where the official German paperwork/ records would be located?

[mmm45]

http://www.icrc.org/eng/contact-archives

Maybe get some info from Red Cross but its expensive and takes a while.

Ady

[Doug Johnson]

There is a series of WW1 PoW death certificates at The National Archives. I have no idea what they refer to as I have never had need to refer to them. Apparently they are largely in French which suggests they were supplied through the Red Cross. The ICRC have a set of card indexes for PoWs which are being digitized ready for going on line in 2014. They are not suitable for public access as they are all loose cards. Whilst these will be very useful when they become available they will only list head camps or registration camps. With PoWs behind the lines they often went unregistered for months and when they were registered they had no connection with that camp other than it was a contact address for post, parcels etc. This will be about the limit for records for PoWs behind the lines other than WO161 which should always be checked (on line index) even if they did not provide a report themselves. Also check for other KOYLI taken prisoner at the same time as one of them may have made a report which may give a clue as to what was happening at the time. FO383 is also worth checking (on line index) but is unlikely to have anything of interest to you in this case.

There is a Command Paper (Cd 9106: Miscellaneous No 19 (1918) Report on the Treatment by the Germans of Prisoners of War taken during the spring offensives of 1918) on PoWs captured during the spring offensive who were held behind the lines. It does not contain names but does give a good impression of the conditions they were held under including extracts from first hand accounts from WO161 reports.

Doug