German pow's from capture to repatriation

[johnboy]

rightly or wrongly i feel there should be an Army Order or instruction tucked away somewhere. Any ides how/where to search for it?

[fritz]

10 hours ago, johnboy said:

Royal Defence Corps

[johnboy]

From Long Long Trail

 

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-royal-defence-corps-of-1916-1918/

[johnboy]

Ihave gone through about 200 RDC mens service records. They only seem to give postings to Protection Companies but no locations. 

[Keith_history_buff]

On 08/09/2019 at 16:38, Moonraker said:

Graham Mark  in Prisoners of War in British Hands during WWI lists almost 60 "major camps" and many satellite work camps.

 

(The map on the ICRC website mistakenly places one camp at Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, whereas it was at Dorchester in Dorset.)

 

Moonraker

 

Eustace Barron (14-Jul-1868 - 1947) was granted a temporary commission on 30 November 1917. He was a Temporary Second Lieutenant and Adjutant in the Labour Corps, and after serving in France, he was posted to the POW camp at Dorchester in 1918. (Source: service file at Kew, reference WO 374/4330. He was commissioned from the ranks, and his OR service record is online, but that is unlikely to contain any reference to POW duties.) I would imagine that at this time, the facilities needed to handle so many German POWs needed a considerable expansion.

[johnboy]

Still looking at RDC service records. I have found reference that 65 Protection  were at Pattishall and !66  were at Brocton

[UKAIF]

Have just checked a couple of sources re Canada and Australia.

 

The 600+ pages of G.W.L. Nicholson, Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015 [1962]) make no mention of German POW. I don't recall any references in other key works by authors such as J.L Granatstein or Desmond Morton.

 

Secondly, Ernest Scott, The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 Vol XI Australia During the War. (Sydney: Angus and Robertson Ltd, 1936) does refer to German POW. For example he mentions (p.114-116) sailors from the Emden being interned at Berrima. Other enemy sailors from Hong Kong, Singapore and Ceylon were brought to Australia and held at places such as Trial Bay and Liverpool. Later there were plans to bring POW (and dependants) from China, Singapore and Ceylon and even East Africa but this did not materialise - some of these drift into the category of internees rather than POW per se and, of course, there were plenty of other internees held throughout the war in the dominions. Others came from Rabaul (captured by the AN&MEF) and other former German territories in the Pacific. Likewise, the Samoa Expeditionary Force sent by NZ held enemy personnel.

 

 

 

[johnboy]

Thanks for the info.

[johnboy]

I have found references for some Work Camps in Daily Order sheets tucked away in some Service records.

 

55 Coy   Huntingdon Agl Camp

55 Coy   Wakerley Working Camp

56 Coy   Panshangar Lumber Camp

56 Coy   Foxburrow Farm

56 Coy   Rochford Agl Camp

64Coy   Southill Lumber Camp

64 Coy   Woburn Lumber Camp

66 Coy   Grendon Working Camp

61 Coy Corby Working Camp

[johnboy]

Going back to the ships at Southend used to hold POW's, I have come across a newspaper report stating that 1530 prisoners held on them were sent to Frith Hill Camp , Frimley April 1915

Edited 26 September , 2019 by johnboy

[johnboy]

An update

Found a service record for another relative, shown as in Labour company POW coy in France

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/1219/30971_172502-00765?pid=1203055&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid%3D1219%26h%3D1203055%26indiv%3Dtry%26o_vc%3DRecord:OtherRecord%26rhSource%3D2352&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.10795121.477799685.1572651776-1776287872.1572388608&_gac=1.262800056.1572652243.EAIaIQobChMI1u_isJjK5QIVmpntCh3EgQKoEAAYASAAEgIDH_D_BwE#?imageId=30971_172502-00780

[johnboy]

Other Labour companies used for guarding German POW's in France

 

22 Labour Co

33 Labour co

56 Labour Co

109 Labour Co

182 Labour Co

215 Labour Co

314 Labour Co

 

Not sure if these Coys escorted prisoners on trains and ships .

 

 

 

[Paris]

The following link and title should help with your query on the Royal Defence Corps re Table of Contents.

 

Claudia Sternberg and David Stowe (Eds) Pleasure, Privilege, Privations: Lofthouse Park Near Wakefield, 1908 - 1922. Publisher: Biddles Books, 2018.

 

https://ruhlebenlofthouse.com/book-purchase

 

The Graham Mark book and Panikos Panayi's work on Prisoners of Britain are worth a look too.

 

 

[johnboy]

Thanks I have got the answers I wanted. Except who guarded prisoners on trains.