List of British officers taken prisoner in the various theatres of war

[Jonathan Saunders]

Can anyone tell me whether this book gives dates of being taken in to captivity, and if so, if those officers captured 23 August 1914 and prior, are easily identifiable (such as a chronological list of names).

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[Doug Johnson]

Jonathan,

Usually the date of "missing" is included. however the list does have a couple of weak points and one of them is that early prisoners are not fully included and their dates are absent more than they are present. (RN prisoners are also mostly missing which is another weak point). It is however the only remaining list since the card index was destroyed in WWII. I usually record officer prisoners when I come across them so I may have references to some of the missing ones. It may be possible to establish dates from the battalion diaries.

The list is broken down by unit. It is indexed but the chronology is only included with the individual unit so extracting a full list of officers taken prior to 23rd August would include a trawl of all units and then would be hit and miss as some are listed only as "1914".

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Jonathan,

I had a quick trawl through and apart from a couple of RAMC I could not find anyone with a date prior to the 23/8/14 though there are a number of 1914s and one -/8/1914 (it was a quick trawl so I could have missed some). I also suspect that some of the dates listed are incorrect. I have a note that Cpt Bell of the Gordons was taken PoW on the 26th August but he is listed as 10/9/1914, which is the earliest listed date for the Gordons.

Doug

[Jonathan Saunders]

Doug - thanks for the answer. I am interested in determining the first officer pow's of the BEF in August 1914. As you seem informed on this subject, is there an answer more readily available?

Thanks and regards,

Jonathan S

[27thBN]

How many officers would have been taken prisoner prior to 23rd August 14.I would have thought very few if any?

MC

[Doug Johnson]

Jonathan,

I am not sure there is a quick answer. The 23rd was basically the opening day of hostilities and I doubt that any officers were PoW before that (which means that someone will now come along and say exactly who was taken prisoner earlier!) On the 23rd at Mons, there were a limited number of units engaged so it should be straight forward to read the histories of those units and determine if any officers were taken prisoner. I read the LLT to see if there was anything on there that might give me a clue but of the units mentioned only the RE had officer/s taken prisoner that I can see. However, Coxs list gives the first RE PoW as Lt Balfour on the 25th August (which may be incorrect) and the next four Cpt Paris, Lt Wells, 2/Lt Ellinger and Lt Day do not have any date listed at all. For the RA, The first three, Cpt Smythe, 2/Lt Gore-Brown and Lt Hill have no date listed. The fourth, Cpt Leech is listed as -/8/1914 and the fifth, Cpt Lyster is dated as 24th August. The withdrawl from Mons, although chaotic, seems to have been relatively unharassed so it would be units like the RE and RA who were more likely to loose officers as PoWs as they can't just pull out at the drop of a hat. (and the RAMC of which Lt Butler is listed as 21st August and Major Kelly is listed as 13th August. If this last date is correct than he was exceptionally quick of the mark!) There are however a number of RAMC only listed as 1914. Most of these probably went missing in the next major action at Le Cateau. The more I look at Coxs though the more I doubt the accuracy of these early dates.

The earliest PoWs were probably the unfortunate crew of a trawler that hit a mine on the 3rd August and were rescued by the Germans, and perhaps some civilians and others in Germany at the wrong time who were arrested as potential spies.

Doug

[Jonathan Saunders]

Doug,

My interest is only the BEF in this regard.

I wasn’t sure if it was possible that “Forward-liason” officers that went across to act with the French forces may have been caught up by the speed of the German advance prior to 23 Aug, or whether any BEF officers (and I am thinking cavalry) were made prisoners as a result of skirmishes, which I think commenced around 21 Aug?

Capt Lister of 1/RWK was taken POW around mid-day, possibly earlier in the morning, on 23 Aug, and I am trying to establish whether he was the first officer POW of the BEF. From your reply I need to investigate Lt Butler and Major Kelly. I think any RA officers would probably have been from later on 23 August or 24 Aug onwards.

Thanks and regards,

Jonathan S

[Doug Johnson]

Jonathan,

I knew I would miss one! Lister is listed as 23/8/1914. Lt Chitty RWK is listed as 1914. Liaison staff could include Intelligence staff and there are three listed as 1914, Lt Martin, Bevan and Breen. The last was Mainz in 1915 as reported by Lt Dobson RND (as Bream) (Dobson is not listed by Cox's!) Breen escaped from Mainz but was recaptured.

(The LLT states at least one RE officer taken prisoner on the 23rd)

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Major Kelly was interviewed and his record is here. However, the date of the report is stated as from the 26th August so Coxs is probably in error.

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Cpt Rose, Lincolnshire Rgmt, 23/8/1914

Doug

[Doug Johnson]

Cpt Rose was also interviewed but his report was not printed.

Doug

[Jonathan Saunders]

Thanks Doug.

2/Lt Chitty's report is online too I think (if not I should have a copy somehwere) - he was repatriated late 1916 or 1917 from memory. Wounded in the same action as Lister his wounds were treated by nuns who hid him in a nearby convent (so not a 23 Aug POW). Eventually the Burgomeister informed on him, or so he thought. His report is excellent reading - mainly as he wants everyone shot ... Burgomeister, German doctor in white coat, etc!

In all evidence I have found on Chitty I imagine someone that thought himself too posh to travel in the same car as his chauffer (to steal a line about Jim Swanton). A proficient golfer (he may have played for the army) he went on to command 1st or 2nd Bn in the 1930s.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[headgardener]

I'm pretty sure that the first army officer POW was a Lt. or Capt. Sherman of the RA who was on a liner which was intercepted by a German raider in early August (culled from an FO or CO file many years ago, I have the reference somewhere....). I think that he was the only prisoner they took from the ship. But I guess that's not really what you're asking.

I'm pretty sure that the first army officer to be taken POW with the BEF was Victor (Stuart?) Erskine LINDOP, who was serving with the RFC (can't remember his original unit). Came down behind enemy lines on about the 14th August, if my memory serves me right. I'm at work, atm, hence not able to reference 'The sky their battlefield'.

Any advance on that, anyone?

[Jonathan Saunders]

My fault for not being clearer - the question relates to land forces of the BEF.

Thanks all the same.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[Doug Johnson]

Lindop is listed with a 9/9/1914 date. If he was taken prisoner earlier then it is another example of the early dates being incorrect.

Doug

[headgardener]

Lindop is listed with a 9/9/1914 date. If he was taken prisoner earlier then it is another example of the early dates being incorrect.

Doug

Just checked; Lindop was POW on 7th Sept. So the dates ARE wrong, but only very slightly in this case.

And I was wrong, sorry. The heat must have got to me....

[Doug Johnson]

Sherman is not listed in Cox's.

Chitty was presumably a 23/8/1914 "missing". It is possible that others listed as "missing" were not taken PoW straight away. Most officers from that period seem to tend towards the arrogant. I had to stop reading officers' reports at one time as I was sick of them whineing about minor difficulties

I found a Lt-Col Boger, Cheshire Rgmt "missing" on the 24th August. Must be the earliest of significant rank (assuming the date is correct).

Doug

[Jonathan Saunders]

Doug and HG - once again, many thanks for your input.

Chitty, I guess, was a product of his times. I do remember reading his report a few years back though, and being astonished how casually he advocated the shooting of people he felt had crossed him during his incarceration.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[headgardener]

Sherman is not listed in Cox's.

Like you said earlier, some early POW's are missing from Cox's.

I have tons of stuff on POW's, and wish I had access to all my ref's (I moved a few months ago, and pretty much all my non-essential stuff is in storage), but I'm almost certain that Sherman was released after a couple of weeks as part of a very early prisoner swap. I think he had to sign a document stating that he wouldn't take part in active operations against German forces for the duration of hostilities, in exactly the same way that later returned POW's did. The early status of foreign nationals of both sides was very confused in the early weeks of the war. There was a British Colonel on the Retired List living in Germany who was also interned shortly after the outbreak of war.