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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

German POWs in UK


Guest Pete Wood

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I know that some German POWs had quarters in the stables at Newbury Race Course.

Were there many other camps in the UK, and did the officers have separate camps?

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Guest peter johnson

There is a small booklet in print from i believe Naval & Military Press, that gives a list of the internment camps. Officers did have their own ie; Colsterdale near Masham, N, Yorks.

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Some time ago I read an account of a German officer escaping from the camp at Colsterdale and was recaptured at the railway station at Masham.

Anyone else heard or read of this story?

The book was a collection of escape stories, the name of which has escaped me!

Roger (Near Masham North Yorks)

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I've read about a camp for German officers at Donington Hall, Leicestershire. The money the Government spent on buying and adapting the premises was the subject of some controversy in the press in 1915 - "our boys are living in tents but we're putting our enemies up in luxury...", that sort of thing.

Jim

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Dare I suggest this may be another research area for forum members. I have a note from a Coventry newspaper that a young local girl was brought before the magistrates court for making contact with a German who was in a camp on the Radford Rd which was then a semi-rural community on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately it was not made clear whether this was an interment camp or a POW camp.

Worth a shot perhaps?

Terry Reeves

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German POWs in Britain 1914-1918 (The Prisoners. 1914-1918)

By October 1918 in mainland Britain there were 250,000 German POWs in POW Camps.

492 Camps are recorded as being in England,25 in Scotland and one in the Channel Islands.

Interestingly the POW Camp at Oldcastle, County Meath in Ireland was shutdown on the onset of the Irish domestic problems from the point of being considered a security risk.

There were also 35 special hospitals created to tender the enemy sick and wounded.

A few years ago there was an item in the Yorkshire Post which related ,I think I am correct, the flight of the Hindenburg over the Leeds area. (It would be early 1937. I remember seeing it as a child and being told by my mother that it was "the German Airship".)The report went on that the airship had thought to have dropped wreaths on the graves of Great War German POWs at Keighley (North West of Leeds).From this it would appear that there was a German POW Camp in the Keighley area.The German dead were reinterred at Cannock Chase when this post WW2 Military Cemetery was created.

Regards

Frank East

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Not about camps as such. Taken from a 1916 newspaper.

Prisoners for the land

The Daily News says the War Office is making the arrangements for the employment of German prisoners on the land.It has assigned 75 men for each Engish County. They are to be located at some central position where they can be dealt with under barrack conditions, and will be at the disposal of the Executive Committees of The War Agricultural Committees which have been given powers under the Board of Agriculture to use them to the best advantage. A certain block number of prisoners have also been assigned for Wales. German prisoners will also work on the land in Scotland . In this case the men will be controlled by the Scottish Department which has also set up a food production branch.

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There was a POW camp at Holyport near Maidenhead. A local pub, called 'The Eagle' was cheered by the POWs every time they marched past, because the eagle on the sign looked like the Imperial German eagle. The pub consequently changed its name to 'The Belgian Arms', and is still there today.

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