Cpl Charles Skeels, 2nd Cheshire Regiment.

[janet daenzer]

Looking through old archives of the Anglican church community in Château-d'Oex Switzerland,, I came across a poem by Corporal Charles Skeels 2nd. Cheshire Regt. about his imprisonment in Germany and his arrival in Château d'Oex.

If this is of interest to you I can send you a copy and also some of his prayers written in pencil on the back.  Please contact me at the email address  removed by moderator 

My very best wishes for yur work in keeping their memories alive.

          Janet Daenzer

[Michelle Young]

Welcome to the forum Janet. I have removed your email address from your post. We get spammers visiting, and they can gather information. Members can use the private messaging facility to contact you. 

[Matlock1418]

3 hours ago, janet daenzer said:

Corporal Charles Skeels 2nd. Cheshire Regt.

Janet, Welcome to GWF.

Born 1880 and Married Corporal Charles SKEELS, 11662, Cheshire Regt. [seemingly earlier also 6047 and 10353] made a disability pension claim for Debility [weakness] after his discharge 16.11.17.  He seems to have made some recovery, Conditional [temporary] 100%, 70% and then  20% disability rates awarded [unfortunately his full Ministry of Pensions file is now lost, probably deliberately destroyed once its use was passed]  He was living in Darwen, Lancashire, at the time of his pension claim [Source Western Front Association/Fold3]

His medal index card shows he first landed in France 6/3/15 and was thus eligible for a 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal

As for his poem - Thank you for making us aware of it.  I feel sure many members would like love to see it.  ...  So on behalf of all - I wonder if you could please post it on the forum ??

M

Edited 22 February by Matlock1418
add from MIC

[Tawhiri]

This looks to be the best match for his birth, from the GRO Indexes.

SKEELS, CHARLES         Mother's maiden name: SANDERSON      
GRO Reference: 1879  S Quarter in ROCHDALE  Volume 08E  Page 92

His christening record states he was christened on 24 August 1879 in Rochdale.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FMTS-7HC

The death of a 59-year old Charles Skeels was registered in Darwen in the first quarter of 1939, which would be consistent with the address associated with the pension claim that Matlock1418 found.

In the 1891 England and Wales census he is living with his family in Newchurch, Lancashire, and working as a cotton throstle doffer. By 1901 he is a 21-year old Corporal serving with the Cheshire Regiment and in barracks at Aldershot, Hampshire. Ten years later in 1911, he is married to 24-year old Lily Annie Skeels and working as a blacksmith in a stone quarry in Darwen, Lancashire.

1891 - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7MVW-66Z

1901 - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X9XS-W78

1911 - https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X499-NHZ

Presumably, because of his prior experience, he was either recalled or volunteered and accepted on the outbreak of war in 1914, and then very quickly restored to his previous rank.

I would also echo Matlock1418's comment, I would love to see the poem he wrote.

Edited to add that a search of the Lancashire papers for the period 1900-1949 at the British Newspaper Archives almost immediately returns two hits on his name at the time he was taken POW and shortly afterwards.

From the Burnley Express of Saturday, 19 June 1915:

Corpl. Charles Skeels, of the 2nd Cheshire Reg'ment, whose parents reside at 9, Highstreet, Brierfteld, has fallen a prisoner into the hands ...

From the Nelson Leader of Friday, 1 September 1916:

... CORPL. CHARLES SKEELES in everything else we are free. You can write freely to me here, as often as you like, and as much as you like. Instead of parcels, I should be pleased if you could send a few shillings occasionally, as we are only allowed about ...

Edited 22 February by Tawhiri

[Matlock1418]

Cheshire Regiment - so I think @thetrenchrat22 might be interested and perhaps have something to add ??

M

Edited 23 February by Matlock1418

[thetrenchrat22]

This is possibly be, the poem Janet has posted about. 
this is taken from The Cheshire Regiment magazine’The Oak Tree’ October 1916, Vol 1 No. 11.  Pages 169 & 170

[Matlock1418]

25 minutes ago, thetrenchrat22 said:

This is possibly be, the poem Janet has posted about. 
this is taken from The Cheshire Regiment magazine’The Oak Tree’ October 1916, Vol 1 No. 11.  Pages 169 & 170

Thank you. 

That does seem quite likely the poem of the OP. 

Or else Cpl. Skeels was in the habit of penning multiple such glowing accounts - He certainly seems very pleased to have got to Switzerland.

Would be nice to see the Swiss version [perhaps the original??].

M

[familyhistoryman]

I was interested to see the messages about Charles Skeels. He is someone I have been researching, and he did produce a booklet of poems that covers his army experiences - sadly I have not been able to find a copy. I have copied below that various newspaper reports I have on him. He was buried in Darwen Cemetery on 31 Jan 1939 in an unmarked grave.

Regards, Tony

Prior to the War, Charles Skeels lived for a short time at Briefield and during the War his parent remained there. The Nelson Leader published one of his letters that was also reprinted in the ““The Leader”, Local War Record 1914-1915”

Corporal Skeeles, of Briefield, in a letter dated May 29th, gives an account of his life as a prisoner of war, and adds a formidable list of his requirements. He says:

“I am in fairly good health and waiting for an answer to my first letter, and for the parcel, so that I can have a [obliterated by German censor] only just [two lines obliterated by German censor]. We get up at six in the morning, and after a wash we get a pint of coffee or milk [obliterated by German censor] bread. At 12.0 we get two pints of soup, and at 6.0 at night, more soup and a ration of bread. So put something solid in the parcel along with the ‘bacca and wood pipe. The weather is hot now and we are having a good rest. Send syrup for I can use it to sweeten the barley soup, as well as putting it on bread. I’s like a small pen-knife, so that I could sharpen my pencils. Don’t pack the box with newspapers, for the censor would not let them through; just put biscuits or something like that to keep it tight. Bread will keep longs it wrapped in a lien cloth; and see that the soap is not against the bread, for I don’t expect it to get it in less than three weeks after you have sent it off. So send one every week till peace is declared, when I shall perhaps be strong enough to get home safe. We have all kinds of soldiers her in our camp, British, Canadians, Belgians, French, Russians and sailors. We have concerts at night and parades in the day time, to pass our time away. We have been here only three weeks, yet we are tired of doing nothing. I told them I was a hospital nurse, so that I shall perhaps get a touching sight to see the poor Belgian people leaving their dear homes with only sent to that if we have to work. Nearly all our wounded are well again now. I hope you had a good time during Whit-week. Just fancy; you on your holidays and me penned up here, with barbed wire all round; nothing to see but the guards who are in charge of us, from one day to another. We have no razors here, and I am growing a beard; so I shall look all right very soon. My socks have holes in them [obliterated by German censor] I hope you don’t think I am sending for too much, but do the best you can without hurting yourself [obliterated by German censor] You can send the knife like you sent money. English silver can be changed here, and we can buy butter, sugar, jam, and various other things at the canteen. I just give you a list you can choose from to pack the parcel with: Hovis bread; muffins, currant or plain; spearmint; plain chocolate, syrup; tinned milk; sad cakes; biscuits; soap; thick twist and matches; tined meat; current loaf. Don’t send anything that requires cooking. I had to leave off here to go and be inoculated for the second time since I came here [obliterated by German censor] I could just eat a warm muffin with treacle or jam on it, with a pint of good tea, or a 4½d place at the cook’s shop. I’d also like a copying ink pencil. I have black leads, but copying ink pencils are the best for letters. Keep smiling, my dear, for all things will come right in the end. Put your address on the parcel as will as mine, and the date of your letters.”

Brierfield Prisoner of War

Corpl Charles Skeels, of the 2nd Cheshire Regiment, whose parents reside at 9 High Street, Brierfield, has fallen a prisoner into the hands of the Germans after being wounded, and is now at Geissen. He was taken prisoner on the 8th of May, his father’s birthday. He says: “We are being treated all right. We do not get any pay here, so I am hoping that the war will very soon be over, and I can get back to England. I was wounded in the hands and head, but not much, and I am all right again now. It will all come right in the end. We were 23 days in the trenches before being taken prisoners. I was bandaging a wounded officer when I was shot.”

Corp Skeels, was has an uncle and three cousins serving at the front, has served a number of years with the colours in the 2nd Cheshire Regiment. He took part in the South African War, and being wounded at Modder River, was subsequently discharged. At the outbreak of the present war he re-joined his old regiment, the 2nd Cheshires, as a private, and has been promoted to the rank of corporal. 

Burnley News 23 September 1916
Death of Mrs Skeels

The death took place on Wednesday night of Mrs Alice Skeels, of 3 Hartington Street. She was 62 years of age, and he end has undoubtedly been hastened by war worry and anxiety, for her son, Corporal Chas Skeels, fell into the hands of the Germans, as a prisoner of war, early last year. Corporal Skeels was one of the prisoners recently transferred to Switzerland. The funeral of the late Mrs Skeels will take place on Monday at Wheatley Lane, the arrangements for which are being carried out by Mr H Walker, undertaker.

Darwen Gazette, Saturday, Sep 22, 1917

Back to Blighty
Disclosures of German Camps
How Germans Treat Their Captives
(By “Bystander”)

Perhaps the most delighted man in all Great Britain on Sunday morning was Captain C Skeels, of the Cheshire Regiment, when he once more saw the wills of Darwen and the familiar tower, and realised that he was really out of the clutches of the Graman barbarians and back in the “Peaceful Valley” once more. For fifteen months, a period which must have seen terribly long to him, the Corporal was in the hands of the Germans, a prisoner-of-war in Gissen Camp, enduring hardships that weakened his strength, yet all the time playing the part of a true Briton. Now he is weak and but a shadow of his former self, even though he has been recuperating in Switzerland. Whilst in that country he published a book of poems, and in one of these he tells the story of how himself and others came to fall into the hands of the enemy. He says:-

We were fighting in the trenches
Comrades falling round us fast;
With never a thought that Germany
For months would hold us fast.

Our rifles sent their messages,
To bid the Germans retire 
But soon we saw great multitudes
Come trooping through the mire.

Our ammunition soon gives out,
No chance of getting more;
A mostly crowd the Germans get,
With bandages galore.

Our pockets soon were emptied,
The guards of that made sure;
And many men were forced to march,
With wounds that none can cure.

Covered with mud, we tramp along
Not knowing what’s before;
To think we’ve finished with the war
Just makes us all feel sore

Black bread and water was our fare,
When we rested for the night,
And when next day we were reviewed
We looked a pretty sight.

In railway trucks they herded us,
Like cattle in the swamps,
And then our fateful ride began
To our various prison camps.

They number us, they cut our hair,
Like convicts we became,
And the wonder is what any man
Can claim now to be sane.

Always well guarded, always watched,
By day as well as night;
And no matter what we suffered,
What our captors did was right.

Long weary hours we sent in camp,
By day as well as night;
And no matter what we suffered,
What our captor did was right.

The Corporal’s poems are human documents, for in them all he strikes the human note. He was not new to service when he left his employment at the Cranberry Lane  Pipe Works to join the army in September 1914. Nineteen years ago he became a solider for the first time and he was one who went out to fight the Boers but was invalided home. In that fateful engagement in May 1915, when his regiment was out-numbered he was wounded in the hand by shrapnel. War methods have developed since that time, but in that conflict with an unequal regiment the Corporal’s regiment suffered. He was taken prisoner in the night time as he was trying to make his way back to our lines. In all 82 of the Cheshire were taken prisoners, and they were conveyed into Germany, as he has described in his poem, and there reviewed by a staff of officers, who endeavoured to extract information likely to be valuable to the Germans but with no success. 

On the way into Germany Corporal Skeels soon had a taste of bitter hatred that existed in that country toward England. This was found not amongst the German soldiers who had had a taste of our fighting methods at the front, but amongst the civilians and in particular the women of Germany. Gissen was the camp to which the Corporal was conveyed, and there he was incarcerated for a period of fifteen months. The sanitary and health conditions in the camp were not bad, but the food supplied was the poorest yep, and such as a man could not exist.

I am not much now” the Corporal says, “but I am strong compared to what I was before I left Germany. I was so weak that I could not lift even a small handbag. If it had not been for the parcels we got from Darwen I fear the worst must have happened. I am thankful to the Darwen public and those who sent the parcels, and shall never be able to repay them for what they did for me.

The Germans tried to force their prisoners to go out and work for them. They could not compel us to do this” the Corporal remarks, “and we refused to do it. The non-commissioned officers, though they were most harshly treated, stuck together. To punish us for not complying they compelled us to do extraordinary exercise. About 500 of us – 250 Englishmen and 250 French – were assembled in a small yard, and forced to keep on marching round the square for eight hours. They tried to stop us talking, and would allow us to do nothing but keep on marching. My ankles pain me to this day as a result of the marching I had to do.”

The Corporal tells of the formation of the camp band, “The American YMCA brought us instrument,” he says, “on the definite promise given by the Germans that no Bantam should be from it. But before long we had a taste of what reliance can be placed on any promise they make. They took a large number of players from our band, and I was the only soloist left.”

Then came the time when he and others left the camp for Switzerland

Just soldiers battered in the strife,
Some wounded, and some ill,
But all the time in joy or pain, 
We are British soldiers still.

As we writes in his book of poems. During that journey he learned more of Germany than he had done all the time hew was in the camp. He had known that the civilians were being deluded by the precious and fictitious war news served up to them were of the opinion that Germany was winning the war; he knew that the soldiers who had been out at the front and learnt the truth had no such false opinion. When the Corporal was travelling to Switzerland he saw how earnestly Germany had entered upon the war. 

“The country is one vast kitchen garden,” he says, “that is the case from one end to the other. Everybody is doing something towards winning the war.”

How the Corporal and other men arrived in Switzerland is related in his poem:

On August 12th, at Constance
Just beyond the boundary line,
British soldiers, sick and wounded,
Wearily did pass the time.

For exchange they all are waiting,
To the freedom of the Swiss;
All their thoughts are concentrated
On that land of health and bliss.

Lo, the German guards are leaving,
Rifles they unloaded are, -
And with steps they think so stately
They go marching by our car.

The whistle sounds, - the train is moving
Banish now all fear and care,
As we hear the smiling people
Shouting: “Vive l’Angleterre!”

And in his poem ‘Just Think’ the Corporal says:-

When you in Britain’s lovely isle
Dwell peaceful and secure;
With health and comfort and your friends, 
Around you by the score.

Just think of those in foreign lands,
In prison camps that lie,
Their vision blurred by foemen’s steel,
Beneath the summer sky.

High boards around their dwelling place
Barbed wire on every side,
And with a dull monotony,
The days do slowly glide.

Weary and worn, with longings vain
For freedom they do pine,
As on parade their names are called,
And they form up in lines.

Just think how anxiously they call,
For news of those so dear,
So don’t forget to send along
A line their hearts to cheer.
 

 

[Matlock1418]

2 hours ago, familyhistoryman said:

I was interested to see the messages about Charles Skeels. He is someone I have been researching, and he did produce a booklet of poems that covers his army experiences - sadly I have not been able to find a copy. I have copied below that various newspaper reports I have on him. He was buried in Darwen Cemetery on 31 Jan 1939 in an unmarked grave.

Regards, Tony

Prior to the War, Charles Skeels lived for a short time at Briefield and during the War his parent remained there. The Nelson Leader published one of his letters that was also reprinted in the ““The Leader”, Local War Record 1914-1915”

Corporal Skeeles, of Briefield, in a letter dated May 29th, gives an account of his life as a prisoner of war, and adds a formidable list of his requirements. He says:

“I am in fairly good health and waiting for an answer to my first letter, and for the parcel, so that I can have a [obliterated by German censor] only just [two lines obliterated by German censor]. We get up at six in the morning, and after a wash we get a pint of coffee or milk [obliterated by German censor] bread. At 12.0 we get two pints of soup, and at 6.0 at night, more soup and a ration of bread. So put something solid in the parcel along with the ‘bacca and wood pipe. The weather is hot now and we are having a good rest. Send syrup for I can use it to sweeten the barley soup, as well as putting it on bread. I’s like a small pen-knife, so that I could sharpen my pencils. Don’t pack the box with newspapers, for the censor would not let them through; just put biscuits or something like that to keep it tight. Bread will keep longs it wrapped in a lien cloth; and see that the soap is not against the bread, for I don’t expect it to get it in less than three weeks after you have sent it off. So send one every week till peace is declared, when I shall perhaps be strong enough to get home safe. We have all kinds of soldiers her in our camp, British, Canadians, Belgians, French, Russians and sailors. We have concerts at night and parades in the day time, to pass our time away. We have been here only three weeks, yet we are tired of doing nothing. I told them I was a hospital nurse, so that I shall perhaps get a touching sight to see the poor Belgian people leaving their dear homes with only sent to that if we have to work. Nearly all our wounded are well again now. I hope you had a good time during Whit-week. Just fancy; you on your holidays and me penned up here, with barbed wire all round; nothing to see but the guards who are in charge of us, from one day to another. We have no razors here, and I am growing a beard; so I shall look all right very soon. My socks have holes in them [obliterated by German censor] I hope you don’t think I am sending for too much, but do the best you can without hurting yourself [obliterated by German censor] You can send the knife like you sent money. English silver can be changed here, and we can buy butter, sugar, jam, and various other things at the canteen. I just give you a list you can choose from to pack the parcel with: Hovis bread; muffins, currant or plain; spearmint; plain chocolate, syrup; tinned milk; sad cakes; biscuits; soap; thick twist and matches; tined meat; current loaf. Don’t send anything that requires cooking. I had to leave off here to go and be inoculated for the second time since I came here [obliterated by German censor] I could just eat a warm muffin with treacle or jam on it, with a pint of good tea, or a 4½d place at the cook’s shop. I’d also like a copying ink pencil. I have black leads, but copying ink pencils are the best for letters. Keep smiling, my dear, for all things will come right in the end. Put your address on the parcel as will as mine, and the date of your letters.”

Brierfield Prisoner of War

Corpl Charles Skeels, of the 2nd Cheshire Regiment, whose parents reside at 9 High Street, Brierfield, has fallen a prisoner into the hands of the Germans after being wounded, and is now at Geissen. He was taken prisoner on the 8th of May, his father’s birthday. He says: “We are being treated all right. We do not get any pay here, so I am hoping that the war will very soon be over, and I can get back to England. I was wounded in the hands and head, but not much, and I am all right again now. It will all come right in the end. We were 23 days in the trenches before being taken prisoners. I was bandaging a wounded officer when I was shot.”

Corp Skeels, was has an uncle and three cousins serving at the front, has served a number of years with the colours in the 2nd Cheshire Regiment. He took part in the South African War, and being wounded at Modder River, was subsequently discharged. At the outbreak of the present war he re-joined his old regiment, the 2nd Cheshires, as a private, and has been promoted to the rank of corporal. 

Burnley News 23 September 1916
Death of Mrs Skeels

The death took place on Wednesday night of Mrs Alice Skeels, of 3 Hartington Street. She was 62 years of age, and he end has undoubtedly been hastened by war worry and anxiety, for her son, Corporal Chas Skeels, fell into the hands of the Germans, as a prisoner of war, early last year. Corporal Skeels was one of the prisoners recently transferred to Switzerland. The funeral of the late Mrs Skeels will take place on Monday at Wheatley Lane, the arrangements for which are being carried out by Mr H Walker, undertaker.

Darwen Gazette, Saturday, Sep 22, 1917

Back to Blighty
Disclosures of German Camps
How Germans Treat Their Captives
(By “Bystander”)

Perhaps the most delighted man in all Great Britain on Sunday morning was Captain C Skeels, of the Cheshire Regiment, when he once more saw the wills of Darwen and the familiar tower, and realised that he was really out of the clutches of the Graman barbarians and back in the “Peaceful Valley” once more. For fifteen months, a period which must have seen terribly long to him, the Corporal was in the hands of the Germans, a prisoner-of-war in Gissen Camp, enduring hardships that weakened his strength, yet all the time playing the part of a true Briton. Now he is weak and but a shadow of his former self, even though he has been recuperating in Switzerland. Whilst in that country he published a book of poems, and in one of these he tells the story of how himself and others came to fall into the hands of the enemy. He says:-

We were fighting in the trenches
Comrades falling round us fast;
With never a thought that Germany
For months would hold us fast.

Our rifles sent their messages,
To bid the Germans retire 
But soon we saw great multitudes
Come trooping through the mire.

Our ammunition soon gives out,
No chance of getting more;
A mostly crowd the Germans get,
With bandages galore.

Our pockets soon were emptied,
The guards of that made sure;
And many men were forced to march,
With wounds that none can cure.

Covered with mud, we tramp along
Not knowing what’s before;
To think we’ve finished with the war
Just makes us all feel sore

Black bread and water was our fare,
When we rested for the night,
And when next day we were reviewed
We looked a pretty sight.

In railway trucks they herded us,
Like cattle in the swamps,
And then our fateful ride began
To our various prison camps.

They number us, they cut our hair,
Like convicts we became,
And the wonder is what any man
Can claim now to be sane.

Always well guarded, always watched,
By day as well as night;
And no matter what we suffered,
What our captors did was right.

Long weary hours we sent in camp,
By day as well as night;
And no matter what we suffered,
What our captor did was right.

The Corporal’s poems are human documents, for in them all he strikes the human note. He was not new to service when he left his employment at the Cranberry Lane  Pipe Works to join the army in September 1914. Nineteen years ago he became a solider for the first time and he was one who went out to fight the Boers but was invalided home. In that fateful engagement in May 1915, when his regiment was out-numbered he was wounded in the hand by shrapnel. War methods have developed since that time, but in that conflict with an unequal regiment the Corporal’s regiment suffered. He was taken prisoner in the night time as he was trying to make his way back to our lines. In all 82 of the Cheshire were taken prisoners, and they were conveyed into Germany, as he has described in his poem, and there reviewed by a staff of officers, who endeavoured to extract information likely to be valuable to the Germans but with no success. 

On the way into Germany Corporal Skeels soon had a taste of bitter hatred that existed in that country toward England. This was found not amongst the German soldiers who had had a taste of our fighting methods at the front, but amongst the civilians and in particular the women of Germany. Gissen was the camp to which the Corporal was conveyed, and there he was incarcerated for a period of fifteen months. The sanitary and health conditions in the camp were not bad, but the food supplied was the poorest yep, and such as a man could not exist.

I am not much now” the Corporal says, “but I am strong compared to what I was before I left Germany. I was so weak that I could not lift even a small handbag. If it had not been for the parcels we got from Darwen I fear the worst must have happened. I am thankful to the Darwen public and those who sent the parcels, and shall never be able to repay them for what they did for me.

The Germans tried to force their prisoners to go out and work for them. They could not compel us to do this” the Corporal remarks, “and we refused to do it. The non-commissioned officers, though they were most harshly treated, stuck together. To punish us for not complying they compelled us to do extraordinary exercise. About 500 of us – 250 Englishmen and 250 French – were assembled in a small yard, and forced to keep on marching round the square for eight hours. They tried to stop us talking, and would allow us to do nothing but keep on marching. My ankles pain me to this day as a result of the marching I had to do.”

The Corporal tells of the formation of the camp band, “The American YMCA brought us instrument,” he says, “on the definite promise given by the Germans that no Bantam should be from it. But before long we had a taste of what reliance can be placed on any promise they make. They took a large number of players from our band, and I was the only soloist left.”

Then came the time when he and others left the camp for Switzerland

Just soldiers battered in the strife,
Some wounded, and some ill,
But all the time in joy or pain, 
We are British soldiers still.

As we writes in his book of poems. During that journey he learned more of Germany than he had done all the time hew was in the camp. He had known that the civilians were being deluded by the precious and fictitious war news served up to them were of the opinion that Germany was winning the war; he knew that the soldiers who had been out at the front and learnt the truth had no such false opinion. When the Corporal was travelling to Switzerland he saw how earnestly Germany had entered upon the war. 

“The country is one vast kitchen garden,” he says, “that is the case from one end to the other. Everybody is doing something towards winning the war.”

How the Corporal and other men arrived in Switzerland is related in his poem:

On August 12th, at Constance
Just beyond the boundary line,
British soldiers, sick and wounded,
Wearily did pass the time.

For exchange they all are waiting,
To the freedom of the Swiss;
All their thoughts are concentrated
On that land of health and bliss.

Lo, the German guards are leaving,
Rifles they unloaded are, -
And with steps they think so stately
They go marching by our car.

The whistle sounds, - the train is moving
Banish now all fear and care,
As we hear the smiling people
Shouting: “Vive l’Angleterre!”

And in his poem ‘Just Think’ the Corporal says:-

When you in Britain’s lovely isle
Dwell peaceful and secure;
With health and comfort and your friends, 
Around you by the score.

Just think of those in foreign lands,
In prison camps that lie,
Their vision blurred by foemen’s steel,
Beneath the summer sky.

High boards around their dwelling place
Barbed wire on every side,
And with a dull monotony,
The days do slowly glide.

Weary and worn, with longings vain
For freedom they do pine,
As on parade their names are called,
And they form up in lines.

Just think how anxiously they call,
For news of those so dear,
So don’t forget to send along
A line their hearts to cheer.

Thank you for posting = some very fine insights.

M

[familyhistoryman]

6 hours ago, Matlock1418 said:

Thank you for posting = some very fine insights.

M

 

I forgot to include an image of Charles Skeels

 

[janet daenzer]

Hi everyone. Here is the poem and prayers of Corporal Skeels that I discovered in some old church documents.

I delayed in sending them as first I wanted to ask permission of the church in Château-d'Oex as these documents are on loan to me for research purposes.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

[janet daenzer]

[janet daenzer]

On 27/02/2024 at 11:39, Matlock1418 said:

Thank you for posting = some very fine insights.

M

An incredible life and such courage both moral and physical.  No wonder we won the war with soldiers like that fighting for their country.  Never to be forgotten

!!

[Matlock1418]

19 hours ago, janet daenzer said:

Here is the poem and prayers of Corporal Skeels that I discovered in some old church documents.

I delayed in sending them as first I wanted to ask permission of the church in Château-d'Oex as these documents are on loan to me for research purposes.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.

 

18 hours ago, janet daenzer said:

Thank you Janet - It is most appreciated that you brought these to our attention and that you have been able to post them. 

The handwritten elements are most evocative of a man who has been stressed but still has hope.

Please thank the church in Château-d'Oex on my/our behalf.

M

Edited 5 March by Matlock1418

[janet daenzer]

It is a pleasure to share something of the life of such a brave man among many others who found refuge here and were well looked after by the local population.

[familyhistoryman]

8 hours ago, janet daenzer said:

It is a pleasure to share something of the life of such a brave man among many others who found refuge here and were well looked after by the local population.

Jane,

Can I ask a favour regarding Charles Skeels? Whilst he was at Château-d'Oex he was visited by his wife in November 1916. I wonder if there are any records at the church regarding her visit. And could you also check for Robert Bannister from Darwen, who also had a visit by his wife at the same time as Skeels. I have seen the Red Cross Records and the churches website regarding the men who stayed at Château-d'Oex. Is there are any records that were not used on the website. 

Regards, Tony

[janet daenzer]

HI Tony

I'll see what I can do but it will take a bit of research and I will need to ask around.  Hopefully I may come across something.

  Regards  Janet

[familyhistoryman]

3 hours ago, janet daenzer said:

HI Tony

I'll see what I can do but it will take a bit of research and I will need to ask around.  Hopefully I may come across something.

  Regards  Janet

Janet

Please don't feel you have to do what I have asked, especially if you have to do a lot of research. If you need information on Charles Skeels for the church then let me know as I have some more information I can send you

Tony

[janet daenzer]

 

On 06/03/2024 at 19:34, janet daenzer said:

HI Tony

I'll see what I can do but it will take a bit of research and I will need to ask around.  Hopefully I may come across something.

  Regards  Janet

Hi Tony

I haven't got a church register for the war years - whether it was not maintained or whether it is lost I have no idea and nobody seems to know. However here are two links from our church history that you may find helpful in your research.

https://interned-inswitzerland-1916.ch/

And the other

https://www.notion.so/stpeters ch5b8d517d30a0432e90f047d0bac091a9?v=92609059f18a4ea1977f63977ab759c0&pus=4

 

If these don't get through let me know and I'll try another method!

[familyhistoryman]

On 09/03/2024 at 12:21, janet daenzer said:

 

Hi Tony

I haven't got a church register for the war years - whether it was not maintained or whether it is lost I have no idea and nobody seems to know. However here are two links from our church history that you may find helpful in your research.

https://interned-inswitzerland-1916.ch/

And the other

https://www.notion.so/stpeters ch5b8d517d30a0432e90f047d0bac091a9?v=92609059f18a4ea1977f63977ab759c0&pus=4

 

If these don't get through let me know and I'll try another method!

Janet

 

Many thanks for trying and sending the links

Regards Tony