Isaac Reece, aboard steam trawler Loch Ryan captured 1916, subsequently POW in Brandenburg camp.

[Nicola Reece]

I’m searching for records/information relating to Isaac Reece’s time as a POW in Germany. He (my Great Grandad, b 20 Sep 1882, d 26 Oct 1972, both Hartlepool) was a civilian (fireman) aboard the steam trawler Loch Ryan when it was captured by U-Boat U64 on 28 Sep 1916, while it was fishing off the Tyne. Records on FMP and elsewhere suggest he was sent to Dulmen, but family lore, supported by a number of photos, is that he was at Brandenburg Camp (no 10?).  Sadly, I can't find him among the Civilian POW index cards in the ICRC Archives. I've searched all the spellings and misspellings of his name I can think of but, as I understand it's not a complete database, I can only assume he is missing. I’ve also searched for the only two other crew members I can ascertain the names of - Richard Henry Whittleton and Walter Kershaw - and they don’t appear in the indexes either. I’d be grateful for any insight into the reason, and any guidance as to where I might find records of civilian WW1 POWs? I’d like to know anything I can about his movements between camps and the life he would have led there.  Photos show him in the football team, and playing violin in an orchestra, and posing with groups of other prisoners.  I have no idea how or why they were taken, or even how they came to be in the family. I have only ever seen them digitally. Happy to post them if allowed and if it may help.

 

I hope I’ve chosen the right place for this post - if not, please let me know where it’s best placed. I am new, and a bit inexperienced in WW1 research.

Edited 31 May , 2020 by Nicola Reece

[johnboy]

Hi, and welcome.

Please post the pics, they may shed some light.

[Nicola Reece]

These images were already titled. I have always assumed that's what they represent but obviously might be wrong - although I do recognise my GG.  He is in the centre of the football photo (goalie), with the violin in the concert-related ones, and on the left of the three men.

[Nicola Reece]

[charlie962]

Welcome Nicola

this is one of the FMP records, sourced from BT167:

Charlie

Edited 31 May , 2020 by charlie962

[charlie962]

FindmyPast has some good records- you must have missed them, perhaps birth 1878 ?- here is Brandenburg transfers from Dulmen 4/10/16  with several Loch Ryan men including Isaac Reece

 

PS Great photos.

 

Charlie

Edited 31 May , 2020 by charlie962

[Nicola Reece]

14 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

Welcome Nicola

this is one of the FMP records, sourced from BT167:

Charlie

Oh, thank you.  This gives me other names to try on the ICRC archive site.  Any idea why he and at least two of his colleagues would be missing from there? I clearly need to reactivate my FMP subscription - have been trying to scrape by with Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive and TNA. Thanks so much.

[charlie962]

Can I suggest (on the basis you already have FMP access) that you search Military and just put the name Isaac Reece ? You will get this list of hits to work your way through.

 

Some of these are from FO 385/382. Well worth going back through the pages on Findmypast image and you will see they've copied the whole file which gives useful background. Dont rely just on FMP transcript.  The start of each list is revealing as to where and when, even if most lists look the same they are different. Happy reading.

 

Charlie

Edited 31 May , 2020 by charlie962

[Nicola Reece]

Ah - so easy! Thank you. Hope you enjoyed the photos though!

[charlie962]

9 minutes ago, Nicola Reece said:

This gives me other names to try on the ICRC archive site.

I don't know why you nor I can find them on ICRC site. There are other interned seamen on there.

[Nicola Reece]

I know.  Disappointing and frustrating.

 

3 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

I don't know why you nor I can find them on ICRC site. There are other interned seamen on there.

I know.  Disappointing and frustrating.

[charlie962]

any thoughts, oh wise one @charlie2

[JWK]

Can't find any of them in the ICRC records either, but I did find this article in the Märkische Allgemeine from 2018, about the "Brandenburg Internment Camp" (If that is the camp we're looking for)

Includes some photos of the camp.

https://www.maz-online.de/Lokales/Brandenburg-Havel/Kriegsgefangene-Eingepfercht-am-Quenzsee

Quote

 

Prisoners of war: Penned up at the Quenzsee

During the First World War one of the largest prisoner-of-war camps existed on the outskirts of the city of Brandenburg. At times, up to 14,000 prisoners were housed on the site near Lake Quenz. But the history can be stretched further.

French prisoners of war were interned in Brandenburg during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/71. Until 1873 the French worked here in road construction or in the construction of the Emster Canal. At least two of the approximately 300 prisoners in Brandenburg died and were buried in the Nikolaifriedhof.
Already in the first months of the First World War, a large number of enemy soldiers, especially Russians, were taken prisoner by the Germans. More than 120 camps were set up in Germany to house these prisoners.

In the fall of 1914, a large warehouse was set up in an earlier brick factory on Lake Quenz.
For this purpose, the old drying sheds were completely covered.

By the winter of 1914/15, the prisoners of war built additional barracks for around 250 prisoners each.

In the spring of 1915, up to 14,000 prisoners were temporarily interned.

The normal occupancy fluctuated between 9500 and 11 000 prisoners.
The prisoners of war worked in factories, in the Plaue powder factory, near Hansa-Brandenburg, in the artillery depot or in agriculture. During the war, Russians, French, British, Belgians, Italians, Japanese, Danes, Spaniards, Portuguese, Greeks, Serbs, Brazilians and Americans were interned in the camp.

Among them were civilians, including around 300 British merchant ship sailors.

At least 948 prisoners died of illness during their stay in the camp, were shot while trying to escape, drowned while bathing or committed suicide. The dead were buried in a special cemetery south of the camp. The cemetery was leveled in 1943 when the Arado airfield was expanded

 

(Rest of the article is about WW2)

 

 

[JWK]

And another article in the same newspaper. About the SS Medora's radio operator's time in the camp (in 1918) (and with better photos)

https://www.maz-online.de/Lokales/Brandenburg-Havel/Wo-Daddy-einst-Kriegsgefangener-war

 

Quote

 

Where daddy was a prisoner of war

From the Irish Sea to Brandenburg an der Havel: Two women from Ireland want to see where their father was in German captivity in 1918. Their search for traces leads them to the former POW camp on Lake Quenz.

The worst, says Jean Leuween Beattie, "was boredom". When her father told her about his months in the prisoner-of-war camp in Quenzsee in Brandenburg, there was often talk of the incredibly long days. "He just had nothing to do," says his daughter. Only occasionally was he allowed to help with burials of prisoners.
And sometimes he helped the postman. Then they went to the Brandenburg-Altstadt train station, where the guarded prisoners fetched food and clothing packages and mail for the inmates and delivered the much-desired items to the warehouse. And all of this is said to have happened here, in Brandenburg an der Havel, on the outskirts of the city, where the electric steel plant is today.

Jean Leuween Beattie (65) and her sister Geraldine Gahan, who is three years older, look around. Grass and bushes have long since grown over the history of the prison camp. It is hard to imagine today that up to 12,000 soldiers were once locked up here, mostly under lousy conditions.

The two women are daughters of Maurice James MacGrath (1898-1988). He had told them a lot about his ship trips around the world and his fate in the First World War. He also left scriptures. Now the ladies want to see for themselves what has become of the places Daddy talked about.
Frank Brekow is their competent companion in Brandenburg an der Havel. The historian knows the history of the prison camp down to the last detail. He has reported on the old brick factory purchased for the camp in 1914, the structure, the converted drying shed, the guards and the pond in the middle of the camp.

The small body of water, a clay pit, can be seen again and again in photographs from the period. Sometimes prisoners just stand around on the banks, sometimes they hang a fishing rod in them, sometimes they bathe or row with a boat. "Is the pond still there?" Asks Jean Beattie. Frank Brekow nods and shows the way. Behind a fence you can see the pond through the bushes. Both women take pictures of what they can see of the water from this point.
Maurice James MacGrath was a teenager when he first set sail. He came from London and the first voyage took him back in 1915 from Liverpool around South America through the Panama Canal to England. Daughter Jean has already completed this tour.

His fourth voyage began on May 2, 1918. The "SS Medora" left the port of Liverpool. Destination Canada round the north of Ireland. The “Medora”, 125 meters long and almost 16 meters wide, was loaded with general goods. During his research Frank Brekow came across a source which mentioned "religious goods".
"It was suspected that gold and silver bars were also transported on the ship," he reports. The fact that merchant ships also served the military in times of war could never be ruled out. In any case, the "Medora" had a self-defense gun on board.

The cannon was of no use to the crew. A torpedo struck the merchant ship between the Scottish and Irish coasts. The German submarine U-86 had shot at the ship without warning. The crew of the "Medora" escaped to life with lifeboats. U-86 appeared.
The submarine commander requested the defenseless British to hand over the three most important crew members: the captain, the gunner and the radio operator. One after the other switched to the German boat. "Now your wireless operator", Maurice MacGrath noted in his autobiographical book "The Last Landfall" about his time in the war.

The father of the two seekers was the radio operator on the "Medora". In the book published in London in 1936, he describes how he went on board and experienced the following months.

For his daughters, it's a bit of a guidebook today.
U-86 was on the way for quite a while. The three prisoners spent time in the torpedo room. "That's where Daddy's claustrophobia came from," says Jean Beattie. He avoided all confined spaces and never used the elevator. Even worse was the hellish cannon thunder. Maurice MacGrath gradually lost his hearing. He was deaf in the mid-20s. "He taught sign language."

While the young radio operator and the other prisoners persisted in the belly of the submarine, the German boat attacked six other ships. On May 22, 1918, it returned to its home port of Wilhelmshaven. Maurice MacGrath was brought to Brandenburg an der Havel by train.
"The command office is still standing," says Frank Brekow and points to the white building. This was originally the brickfactory owner's house, then the warehouse manager's office, after the second

World War for a long time children's home and nowadays quarters for temporary employees of the steel mill.

The structure of the camp can be seen on a map left behind by a prisoner from the United States. In the middle "Officers headquarters", to the right a "Breadhouse". "Does that still exist?" Asks Geraldine Gahan. Brekow points to an orphaned building. "There was the bakery back then." The map also shows the hole in the ground. “Artificial Lake” is on the map, “artificial lake”.

It is hard to imagine today that many people once had to live in earth huts in this part of Europe, that epidemics took many and unsustainable conditions ran riot. The two women shake their heads again and again when Frank Brekow draws dark facets from history.

One of the highlights in the barren camp life for Seaman MacGrath's were the rare cultural offerings in the evening. "The evenings were probably the best part of our day," he recalls in his writing. Then this, then that nation would give a concert. Postcards from this period show that there was music, dance and theater in the camp, organized by the inmates.
On November 9, 1918, the war was over. The prisoners made their way home. The Russians, for example, took many months to return home. "Daddy arrived in Liverpool on December 24th," says Jean Beattie. And was finally back in London with his family a day later, just in time for Christmas.

This is important for their schedule. Jean Beattie writes a book on the search for clues and the meetings "with so many friendly people" on the way. The script is supposed to appear for Christmas, exactly 100 years after her father's happy return home.

 

 

Edited 31 May , 2020 by JWK

[charlie962]

Good articles about life at Brandenburg; Thanks for posting.

[Nicola Reece]

Yes - really fascinating! Thank you very much. The captions to the photos in my family refer to 'the lake', by which I now know they mean a man-made body of water in the camp.  It's visible in some of the photos. I've also read about a notorious incident at the camp, which I think happened when Ike was there, when a hut caught fire and around a dozen men died, including J. P. Genower, a British seaman who some witnesses reported was bayoneted by a guard when trying to escape.

 

So, it's not just me who can't find the crew in the ICRC archive.  I wonder why? Just a sheaf of cards that got dropped and lost, or a less random reason? 

 

I would appreciate any possible avenues to explore for any info on his repatriation. Where and when he arrived back on British soil? In  poor shape, by all accounts, and irrevocably. altered.

 

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and time.

[charlie962]

This is a snippet, courtesy of FindmyPast newspapers , about one of his shipmates. This implies a return beginning of December.

[charlie2]

3 hours ago, charlie962 said:

any thoughts, oh wise one @charlie2

In my list I had recorded that Reece/Reese are missing from the ICRC database. I‘ve also looked at the civilian list, as I presume you have as well, nothing for Reece. I‘m at the Edersee at the moment and the internet here is still driven by a mouse in a wheel. I‘ll have a look tomorrow when I am back home.

 

Charlie2

[charlie962]

The skipper, Richard H Whittleman, didn't have much luck either. The trawler he skippered in 1923 (Gertrude Cappleman) picked up a mine. He kept a primer which exploded when he was showing it to someone else on board. They were both killed. (Inquest details in Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 2/11/23)

[ajsmith]

24 minutes ago, Nicola Reece said:

J. P. Genower, a British seaman

He's buried in Berlin which fits the story. The photographs, at least some of them, are in the IWM from the collection of a Captain Buckingham you can't view them but the descriptions match what has been posted here.

[Nicola Reece]

1 hour ago, charlie2 said:

In my list I had recorded that Reece/Reese are missing from the ICRC database. I‘ve also looked at the civilian list, as I presume you have as well, nothing for Reece. I‘m at the Edersee at the moment and the internet here is still driven by a mouse in a wheel. I‘ll have a look tomorrow when I am back home.

 

Charlie2

Interesting - thank you.  I looked only at the civilian list, actually.  I guess it is striking to me that the other crew members I had names for (Richard H Whittleman and Walter Kershaw) are missing too.  I haven't yet searched for the rest of the crew, posted above by Charlie962. But if they are all missing too, that will be most odd!

1 hour ago, ajsmith said:

He's buried in Berlin which fits the story. The photographs, at least some of them, are in the IWM from the collection of a Captain Buckingham you can't view them but the descriptions match what has been posted here.

I'll take a look - thank you. Maybe, in a camp that size, it is fantasy to think they knew one another, but surely an event like that would have had an impact on him.

Edited 31 May , 2020 by Nicola Reece

[Nicola Reece]

56 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

The skipper, Richard H Whittleman, didn't have much luck either. The trawler he skippered in 1923 (Gertrude Cappleman) picked up a mine. He kept a primer which exploded when he was showing it to someone else on board. They were both killed. (Inquest details in Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 2/11/23)

Just read it. How bloody tragic.

[Nicola Reece]

1 hour ago, charlie962 said:

This is a snippet, courtesy of FindmyPast newspapers , about one of his shipmates. This implies a return beginning of December.

Thanks - I'll see if I can tie that in with any other repatriation info.  Although Ike (Isaac) was surely hugely impacted by whatever he experienced there, he was comparatively lucky. He returned to his wife and 6 children (one of whom he had never met), had a further 3 children and died in 1972 at the age of 90.

Edited 31 May , 2020 by Nicola Reece

[JWK]

A possible sighting of the "Loch Ryan" in the Dutch newspaper "Scheepvaart" ("Shipping") of 27th October 1916 :

 

 

Quote

 

Captured British steamtrawler

 

Last week we reported that the Terschelling lifeboat was launched to help a ship that presumably was in distress.

Upon arrival said ship turned out to be a British steamtrawler, which was captured by a German warship, and was now on its way to Wilhelmshafen under command of a German crew.

As per further reports this trawler is probably the “Loch Ryan” from Hartlepool, which went out to see on 21 september last, and from which nothing was heard since.

The marking on the ship, which the lifeboatcrew had read as “HL Y”, could maybe be “HL 7” which is the identification-number of abovementioned steamtrawler.

 

 

 

 

[MaxD]

https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/en/List/55552/698/6619/ is his ICRC record at Brandenburg dated 16 Oct 1916 having come from Dulmen on 4 October, captured 26 Sep 1916..

 

Max