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Limburg Lahn POW Camp
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Want to know more about Limburg Lahn POW Camp? There are:5 items tagged Limburg Lahn POW Camp available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have been held inLimburg Lahn POW Camp during the Great War 1914-1918. - Astles Edgar. AB. 6th Howe Btn.
- Bailey James. Sherwood Foresters
- Beddall Sidney John Arthur. Cpl. Bedfordshire Regiment
- Brooks John. Pte. Kings Liverpool Regiment
- Cartz Louis. Pte. Suffolk Regiment
- Chamberlain Fred. Sgt. East Yorkshire Regiment
- Cornall Richard Norton. L/Cpl. 4th Dragoon Guards
- Cummins James. L/Cpl. Royal Irish Regiment
- deSanMiguel Charles Anthony. Pte. 28th Battalion
- Fleming Robert. Cpl North Staffordshire Regiment
- Foster Jesse Edwin. Pte. Seaforth Highlanders
- Gutberlet John Thomas. Rfmn. London Regiment
- Impett Harold Edward. Pte. Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment
- Martin Frank. Pte. East Surrey Regiment
- Moody. Ernest Charles. Pte. 12th Battalion
- Moore Daniel Joseph. L/Cpl. Newfoundland Regiment
- Moreland Patrick. Pte Royal Dublin Fusiliers
- Nolan John. Pte. Royal Irish Regiment
- Preddy Frederick William. Pte. Kings Regiment (Liverpool)
- Purdy Clarence C.C.. Pte. 25th Battalion
- Ryan Michael. Cpl. Royal Irish Regiment
- Shirley Edmund. Pte. East Kent Regiment
- Taylor Joseph Alfred . Rfn. Rifle Brigade
- Vose MID.. Francis Albert. Rfm. Kings Royal Rifle Corps
- Walsh William. Cpl. Royal Irish Regiment
- Widdop Leo. CSM. Sherwood Foresters
- Wiseman Harry. L/Cpl. Rifle Brigade
- Worley William Hedley. Pte. North Staffordshire Regiment
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Records from Limburg Lahn POW Camp other sources.
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1206279 Rfn. Joseph Alfred Taylor 3rd Btn. Rifle Brigade Joseph Alfred Taylor Rifleman was my maternal grandfather. I have been given his pay book, pow card and section d reserve discharge papers from my Auntie. My Mum also had his photo. He was born in 1895 and lived in Clerkenwell, Islington. He was married to Hanna Simpson. They lived in Rawstone Street, Clerkenwell and later moved to Sadlers Street (now demolished ) but off Lloyds Row ( near the famous Sadlers Wells Theatre).
The first entry on his pay book is July 1916,(in the field) which suggests to me the Somme Offensive.
On 28/7/1917 he was captured wounded (gassed) and taken to Limburg POW camp. He survived the war and went on to serve in section D reserves. He suffered ill health as a result of the gassing and died in 1931 (gastric ulcers) when my mum was just 8 years old. Joseph was reported as captured on 28th July 1917 around the opening of the 3rd Battles of Ypres. This coincided with the early uses of Mustard Gas by the Germans.
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1206070 Cpl. Michael Ryan Royal Irish Regiment My Grandfather Michael Ryan joined the Royal Irish Regiment on 4th of January 1896, training at Clonmel and then posted to India on 28/10/1897. He earned the India Medal with clasp for Punjab frontier 1897-98.
He re-deployed to South Africa 3/2/1902 and transfered to the reserve 20/11/1903. In 25/1/1908 re-enlisted for 6 years in the SR, he was promoted to Corporal on 14/6/1913.
He was mobilised for Great War and arrived in France on the 7th of October. Michael was listed as missing in action between the 19th and 21st of October 1914. He was held as a POW at Hamel and later Limberg. He was repatriated on the 18th of November 1918.
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264214 Pte. Charles Anthony deSanMiguel 28th Battalion Charles de San Miguel was at the Western Front fighting the Germans in the Battle of Lagnicourt in France when he was captured by the enemy on the 26th of March 1917. Records show he was registered as a Prisoner of War at Limburg POW camp.
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264102 Pte. Frank Martin 13th (Wandsworth) Btn. East Surrey Regiment  Frank Martin, East Surrey Regiment was a PoW during WW1
He was captured on 8th of May 1917 at Fresnoy, France while they were defending Fresnoy against a massive German counterattack. Frank was one of 420 missing.
Bob Nunn sent me a photo which shows him with two other soldiers with Kr. Gifhorn written the back. In the photo, he is the man on the right as viewed wearing 13th East Surrey’s Wandsworth Battalion cap badge. Kr. is the German abbr. for Kreiss, a Government area. Regardless, Gifhorn is fixed and is on Luneburger Heath.
During the Great War the prisoners in Hannover area were administered by X Army Corps and it's area contained some huge Mannschaftslager such as Soltau on Luneburger Heath which, to get a scale of the challenge here, held 35,000 men but had some 50,000 registered from there and assigned to other Work Camps in the area. After capture Frank was recorded at the following camps: 23rd of June 1917 at Dulmen, 11th Aug 1917 at Limburg and 24th of November 1917 at Hameln.
Hameln was a parent camp in X Corps administrative zone and had many attached work camps. Kr. Gifhorn may have been home to one of the attached work camps. There was a PoW camp in Kreis Gifhorn in WW1, 1.7 km down the "Lagerweg" in Rádersloh on the south side ( coordinates 52.715673 10.382309 )
The postcard photographs were taken by a local photographer 'Frau Anna Niewerth, Gamsen kastoft, Kr Gifhorn'.
The camp was divided by a barbed wire fence. The figures on the right of the fence are possibly Russian prisoners with British on the left. Spaced out above the barbed-wire mesh are several strands of wire, which appear to be electrified!
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263894 Pte. Ernest Charles Moody. 12th Battalion (d.7th Jan 1919) Earnest Moody was captured at Lagnicourt on 15th of April 1917 with his brother William, and was interned at Limburg POW camp. After the war he was transferred to Copenhagen, Denmark and died there of Spanish Influenza. He is buried in Vestre Kirkegard cemetery, Copenhagen.
His brother William lived, and returned to Australia.
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262438 CSM. Leo Widdop Sherwood Foresters Leo Widdop joined the Leeds Pals, 15th West Yorkshires in 1915/16. He then served with the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Sherwood Forester.
One day, he and his batman went out to reconnoiter a German ammunition area at the Laventie front. The batman was killed and Leo was wounded in the head. He was captured and taken to the Limburg POW camp. According to Leo, he was operated on in the camp by German medical staff, and a metal plate was inserted into his head to replace missing skull fragments.
The family have letters sent from his regiment's officers saying that he was lost and presumed dead. He was returned home in 1919.
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258091 Pte. Clarence C.C. Purdy 25th Battalion (d.20th Aug 1917) Clarence Purdy of the Canadian 25th Battalion was held as a Pow at Limburg.
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257980 Pte. Jesse Edwin Foster 8th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders Jesse Foster was born in the Hastings area of Sussex in 1892.
He moved to Scotland in his teens where he married and remained thereafter. He was a gardener, but joined the 8th Seaforths for the duration of WW1 being sent to France in 1916. He was captured after a fierce battle in Ypres on the 22nd August 1917, and was a POW first at Limburg, and then at Dulmen.
He was very proud to be a Scot (by marriage and residence) and looked fine in his kilt!
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256617 L/Cpl. Richard Norton Cornall 4th Dragoon Guards My father, Richard Cornall was in the 4th Dragoon guards presumably part of the cavalry action at Audrenies right at the beginning of the war
We have no further details except a 1916 Greetings Card from Giessen Prisoner of War camp in 1916 and 2 cards from Holland on 22nd of February 1918 Portvrij and 9th of March 1918 with an address 27 Van Bevernig Shweningen Holland
There is also a photograph of the Irish Prisoner of War Dramatic Club Football team at Limburg 1916 with my dad looking fit and well
They also appeared to put on musical entertainments. I have a programme
Mother told me he was down to 6 stone at the end of the war and took a long time to recuperate before rejoining in the AEC in 1919
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256423 Cpl. Sidney John Arthur Beddall 5th Btn. Bedfordshire Regiment Sidney Beddall was reported missing on 27th of April 1917.
His mother wrote in June 1917 to the Army to confirm she had received a postcard from him confirming he was a prisoner of war at Limberg.
It was subsequently confirmed and reported on 8th of July 1917.
He also appears to have been imprisoned at Friedrichsfeld.
He chose to be demobilised following his Released Prisoner of War two months furlough.
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255643 Pte. John Brooks 1/6th Btn. Kings Liverpool Regiment My great Uncle Jack Brooks, worked on the railways. He joined up in Liverpool early in the war with his brother (my grandfather). He was posted missing, presumed dead in April 1918, then turned up at Limburg A D Lahn.
Both brothers survived the war, Jack being repatriated from Germany November 1918, his brother Harry returning from Mesopotamia in June 1919
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255550 AB. Edgar Astles 6th Howe Btn. Edgar Astles was in the Army Reserve on 30th of August 1916 and was posted to the RNVR on 6th of July 1917 and joined the 2nd Reserve Battalion at Blandford for training. The was posted to the Howe Battalion on 31st of December 1917. He was reported missing on 24th of March 1918 and then reported POW at Kriegagefangenenlager, Limburg Lahn 4th of June 1918.
It was reported by Netherlands Legation in Brussels that he was a POW in hospital in Braine le Comte, Belgium on the 19th of July 1918 and was moved to Geflg Parchim 16th of August 1918. Edgar was repatriated on the 3rd of December 1918 via Dover and demobilised on the 10th of April 1919 at Prees Heath.
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251201 Sgt. Fred Chamberlain 1st Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment My Grandmother Annie's brother, Fred Chamberlain, was captured and held at Limburg POW camp.
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249633 Cpl. William Walsh 2nd Btn. Royal Irish Regiment William Walsh enlisted at Carlow on 4th January 1904. He was 20 years and 9 months old. Following 3 months at the Royal Irish Regimental Department, Clonmel, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion.
He was transferred to the 1st Battalion in India on 20th January 1905 where he attained a 3rd class certificate of education on 8th August 1908. He was serving with the 1st Battalion at Agra as of April 1911. He returned to the UK on 1st December 1911 and transferred to the Reserve on 3rd January 1912. William married Bridget Leahy a year later at St Mary's Church, Kilkenny City on 7th January 1913.
As the war clouds gathered he mobilised again at Clonmel on 6th August 1914 and was posted to the 2nd Battalion again and disembarked in France with his battalion on 13th August 1914. He was taken prisoner of war by the Germans on 20th October 1914 and was held at Limberg Camp in February 1915, transferring to internment in Holland on 1st March 1918.
On 21st September he was repatriated and transferred to the 3rd Battalion in December and continued in service under the Military Service Act. William was demobilised at Cork and transferred to the reserves on 11th March 1919.
William took up residence at New Buildings Lane, Kilkenny City. He was discharged with the rank of Corporal on 13th July 1919 but re-enlisted the following day at Kilkenny city for one year in the Labour Corps as a Corporal. He was posted initially to Irish Command Centre in Newtownards. William was finally discharged as surplus to military requirements on St Patricks Day 1920.
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248925 Pte. Frederick William Preddy 18th (2nd City) Btn. Kings Regiment (Liverpool) (d.16th June 1918)  Fred Preddy was reported missing in action some time between 19th and 21st March 1918 by his sister Mrs Emily Whitchurch of St. James Place, Mangotsfield who wrote to the authorities in order to establish his whereabouts.
On 21st the Battalion's War Diary simply states “4:40 a.m. Enemy attacked. 4:45 a.m. “Man Battle Station received” yet no mention of men wounded or killed. It was eventually confirmed by the Red Cross that he had been taken as a Prisoner of War by the Germans on 25th March (presumably in the fighting on the same day?) while the German records show he was captured on 28th June at Ham in the province of Limburg, Belgium.
He was admitted to the German No. 3 War Hospital at Chapelle with an embolism caused by a 'ham shot' (a gun shot wound to his upper thigh) and after extensive treatment he died on 16th of June 1918 in the Limburg P.O.W. Camp, north west of Frankfurt. His body was brought in from the German extension of the Communal Cemetery (Soldatenfriedhof No.2) and re-interred in La Capelle–En-Theirache-Communal Cemetery in the small town of La Capelle in the Aisne Department of France. The German authorities wrote to Frederick's sister on 28th of September 1918 advising her of her brother's death. Frederick Preddy is commemorated on the Cenotaph in Clifton Park, Rotherham and also in the Rotherham Postal Sorting Office.
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248004 Pte. Harold Edward Impett 11th Btn. Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment Harold Impett was reported missing on the 23rd March 1918. He had been posted to Italy but I think he was back in France at this time. I have a card from Limburg POW camp that he filled in on 4th of May 1918. His local home newspaper, the Thanet Advertiser, wrote a piece on the 3rd of August 1918 saying that his wife had heard that he had been taken prisoner.
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247378 Pte. Edmund Shirley A Coy. 1st.Btn. East Kent Regiment Ted Shirley signed up in 1914, falsifying his age: he was born in 1898 but registered it as 1896. He spent 1914 and 1915 in Kent, then was sent to France in 1916. He said he first was sent to Armentieres where they had to build up walls as the ground was too wet to dig trenches down into the soil.
He fought on the Somme from 1916 and received a bullet wound in his left arm in September, recovering at a convalescent centre in France I believe, from your records. He talked about seeing early tanks employed on the battlefield for the first time. On one occasion, when he was stuck in no-man's land he watched as a German sniper shot anyone raising their head to see where they were going as they crawled through barbed wire back across British lines: only those who kept their heads down survived, so that was what he did.
In March 1917 he was wounded with a revolver bullet in the right lung and awoke in a German Military Hospital in Lille. He was moved around to a number of camps in 1917, including camps near Limburg an der Lahn, Wittenburg and Dulmen (near Merseburg?). I found this information in Red cross records. He said that prisoners supplemented their diet with nettle soup.
When he was fit he was moved to a Lager further east into Germany and put to work on the railway running between Berlin and Leipzig. He did not remain in the Lager, instead he was imprisoned in an small rural railway station. There were about half a dozen British soldiers and the same numbers of French and Russian prisoners imprisoned there. The Russians were treated very badly. At one time, some of them would get out at night to steal potatoes from a local farm to supplement their poor diet. That was until the farmer started shooting at them one night. It was here that he heard the war was over and refused to work anymore. He was finally repatriated to England in 1919.
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247303 L/Cpl. Daniel Joseph Moore Newfoundland Regiment Daniel Joseph Moore of the Newfoundland Regiment, was captured in April 1917 and according to his record was at Limburg and then at Parchim.
There is some correspondence sent in his own handwriting to his battalion in London asking for food and clothing. He was first reported missing, but the Geneva Red Cross got word to London confirming he was a POW. The London Office shows records of 4 parcels sent to him over a 6 week period with a message they hope he receives them. There are records of what was sent, pants, vests, shoes, hats, gloves, towels, soap and food. He never did receive any of this.
I am his granddaughter and can vividly remember that he would only have a drink at Christmas, black rum, then he would talk of the war. He would tell of how he was worked and starved to death, of seeing his buddies drop due to the terrible conditions and were just left to die. Tears would come to his eyes. He did survive the war serving 4yrs. and 131 days before he came home to Canada.
He would always celebrate Remembrance Day and two of his 3 sons served in WW2. They also came home. Any reference made to German's in WW1 would release a flurry of cursing and swearing, which was not appreciated by my mother(his only daughter) in the presence of women or children, me being one of them. He held a lot in about the war but when he would talk, it was with such emotion that he would actually shake.
He worked as a steelworker until his retirement and had 4 children, 3 boys, 1 girl. He loved the outdoors and especially fishing and hunting. He was also a car enthusiast and I can remember him polishing the chrome on his vehicles. He was one of the lucky ones, he got to come home.
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246531 Pte. John Nolan 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment (d.24th May 1915) John Nolan served with the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment. The Battalion landed in Boulogne on the 14th of August 1914. They saw action in the Battle of Mons and the rearguard action at Solesmes, the Battle of Le Cateau, the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Aisne.
They were virtually destroyed as a battalion near Le Pilly during the Battle of La Bassee. All but 135 men and one officer were either killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
John Nolan was imprisoned in Dietkirchen an der Lahn (Limburg) Prisoner-of-War camp and he died on 24th of May 1916 aged 20.
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238052 L/Cpl. Harry Wiseman 9th Btn. Rifle Brigade I am in possession of WW1 pair for Harry Wiseman. His service record shows he was listed as Missing from 21st to 31st March 1918, then as a POW at Limburg.
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222179 Rfmn. John Thomas Gutberlet 25th Btn. London Regiment John Thomas Gutberlet, known as Jack, served as Rifleman S/35235, 25th Battalion, Rifle Brigade.
He enlisted on 10th December 1915, and was mobilised on 28th July 1917.
He was posted to 17th Battalion, London Regiment on 6th October 1917.
He went to France on 6th January 1918, and joined the Battalion in the field on 16th February 1918 and was missing from 21st March 1918, but later confirmed as a prisoner-of-war in Limburg Camp.
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220905 Pte. Louis Cartz 2nd Btn. Z Company Suffolk Regiment My grandpa, Louis Cartz joined up in 1914 as Private 5635 with the London Rifles but was pulled out by his parents as he was only 15.
He then rejoined not sure which regiment but definitely by 1917 he was with Z company, 2nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. He was also in the process joining the Tank. I checked with the Red Cross records and found he was transferred
from a German military hospital to POW camp Limburg an Lahn on 24/05/1918.
He came back to London in 1919 and had a scroll and letter from King George the Fifth.
Grandpa considered himself lucky and had a cheerful nature.
He told me that he got tangled German field station. There was
morphine and they got him drunk and put a piece of wood in his mouth and sawed his left leg off as gangrene was setting in. Then to a military hospital where he was popular as could speak German and translated papers,letters etc.
He took his disability in his stride and tried to make the best of his life.
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220747 James Bailey 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters James Bailey send a POW acknowledgment card, while at the German POW camp at Limburg, addressed to The Secretary, Soldiers Fund, Nottingham, England. The text thanks the organisation for a parcel and mentions there are three others from the Sherwood Foresters held with him. The card is in pencil and dated 29th March 1915, the Limburg circular date stamp is 7th April 1915.
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219137 L/Cpl. James Cummins 2nd Btn. Royal Irish Regiment My grandfather James Cummins was a veteran of the Boer War, He signed on the Special Reserve of the Royal Irish Regiment in 1912. In 1914 he was with the BEF and badly wounded & taken prisoner near La Bassee and was a POW in Limburg, due to a foul up he was listed as missing presumed dead and remained so for three years. My grandmother received a letter from him and brought it to the Royal Irish Regiment depot in Clonmel. She was told it was a ruse by some soldier who had gotten his army number and was looking for socks etc. It was however his writing and she convinced them to check again.
James Cummins was repatriated through the Red Cross in 1918 and came home to find out that his brother had been killed at Cambrai and of his three brothers in law one had been killed at Suvla Bay, One had been badly injured at the same place and one had come home unscathed.
James lived till 1954. We still have the POW release letter also his enlistment record to the Royal Irish Regmt. Two of his sons served with the armed forces of Britain during WW2.
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216565 Cpl Robert Fleming 2/6 Btn. A Coy North Staffordshire Regiment My father, Robert Fleming, was a prisoner of war, captured by the Germans on 21st March 1918 in Bullecourt. According to the International Red Cross he was "a Prisoner of war in German hands detained in Lager Dulmen, coming from Marchiennes (according to a list dated 04.04.1918) and detained in Lager Parchim I/Meckl., coming from Lager Limburg (according to a list dated 11.05.1918). Both lists issued by the German authorities. My mother said he was very bitter towards the Germans because of his experiences as a prisoner of war and always said he would be one of the first to enlist should he ever get the chance to fight them again. He died in 1938 age 41.
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209163 Rfm. Francis Albert Vose MID. 9th Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps Francis Albert Vose served in the First World War in France. He was at
Ypres and was in the trenches at Passchendaele. Went 'Over the top' three times. It is understood that when the trench was over run by German troops a captured and wounded German officer in the dugout saved Francis and cook from being killed on spot. His family were notified that he was missing between 21st and 27th March 1918 and then were notified he was a POW at Limburg on 31st May 1918. He spent time unloading scrap from railway wagons, escaped with another and, with help from Belgian and French people made their way to Calais. He was certainly there in October 1918.
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205380 Pte. William Hedley Worley North Staffordshire Regiment Hedley Worley, my uncle, he was called up under the Derby scheme 1916, and spent a short time making shell cases at Sharp Bros, Burton on Trent. After a short period of training he was drafted to Ireland to put down the Sir Roger Casement Rebellion. He took part in the seige of Jacob's Biscuit Factory in Sackville Street. Late in 1916 he was drafted to France, captured and spent the rest of the war on a POW camp in Limburg on the Lower Rhine. At this camp Casement, had through German influence, offered a large number of Irishmen their freedom if they would return to Ireland to fight the British. He was stoned from the camp and nearly all of the prisoners remained loyal. Pte Worley developed double pneumonia and was taken to hospital in Cologne. After returning to camp he remained there until the end of the war. The camp was thrown open and the prisoners were allowed to go where they pleased. Only the Red Cross parcels had kept them alive. Their diet was rye bread, potatoes and mangold soup. Hedley, and others who were fit to walk did so, to Metz and from there they went by cattle truck to Nancy. They reached Calais where they were medically examined, reclothed and re-equipped. He arrived home in December 1918. It took him along while to get really fit and went through a period of unsettlement. He married a nurse who during the war was nursing at an RAF hospital in Luton.
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204942 Pte Patrick Moreland 2nd Btn. Royal Dublin Fusiliers My Grandfather Patrick Moreland was in the 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was held by the Germans in Limburg Lahn
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