Great War>Prisoners of War
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- Mersburg POW Camp during the Great War -
Great War>Prisoners of War
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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Mersburg POW Camp
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Want to know more about Mersburg POW Camp?
There are:-1 items tagged Mersburg 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.
Those known to have been held in
Mersburg POW Camp
during the Great War 1914-1918.
- Brown Wilfred. Gem Machine Gun Corps
- Howard James Stanley. A/Cpl. Cheshire Regiment
- Mears George Elsden. Pte. Coldstream Guards
- Morgan Leonard. Pte. Welch Regiment
- Schofield Ben. L/Cpl. Cheshire Regiment
- Trickett John Edward. Pte. Sherwood Foresters
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, please. Add a Name to this List
Records from Mersburg POW Camp other sources.
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Pte. Leonard Morgan 2nd Battalion Welch Regiment
Leonard Morgan was my grandfather on my mother's side. He was taken prisoner at Nieuport according to the Red Cross POW record. He was allocated Prisoner numbers first for Wittenberg, then another on transfer to Merseburg on 22nd of September 1915.William Robinson
Pte. John Edward Trickett 10th Btn. Sherwood Foresters
My father, Jack Trickett, signed up in 1914 and was soon thereafter sent over to France with the Sherwood Forresters. Hit and wounded on 14 Feb 1916 at the Battle of the Bluff, he regained consciousness to see German boots running by the dead and wounded. He did not know whether to call out for help or to lay silent and decided on the latter. Soon, he was picked up by a German medical corps and treated on a stretcher (with no anaesthetics) to remove shrapnel from his body.He was transferred to the prisoner of war camp in Merseburg, where he was to remain until 1919. He was made to work in a stone quarry nearby and survived the worldwide flu epidemic of 1917.
During those hard years, he kept a German diary, still in the family's possession. In the diary, he reported about the food and otherwise parcels that he received - sometimes with items missing. One entry states that he wrote to the commanding officer of the camp to demand an explanation. At the end of his entries, he would commonly add 'expect answer' - this one was no exception! He mentioned letters sent home and also received 'asking for cigarettes and clothing'. One such entry asked his mother to ensure that 'my brother Bill is not to wear my best suit'.
His entry for the 11th of Nov 1918 was 'fighting ceased this day' and every entry thereafter expressed his hope to be home by Christmas. That was not to be, as he finally was repatriated via Denmark and the North Sea in Jan 1919. His war was still not over as the North Sea was heavily mined. Finally he reached British soil and got to see a family he had not seen for over four years.
He eventually married the widow of his best friend, Harry Strawther, who had been fighting at the Battle alongside him and probably received the direct shell, from which the shrapnel hit my father and others. Hannah Strawther was left with two small children. My sister and I were born later.
As a small child, I remember discovering his blood-stained khaki uniform in an army kit bag stored away in a cupboard. He would never speak of the war and his memories until he was in his eighties.
Pte. George Elsden Mears Coldstream Guards
George Mears was a prisoner at POW camp Mersburg 1915-1918.
Gem Wilfred Brown Machine Gun Corps
My Grandfather, Wilfred Brown, fought at Saint-Quentin and was captured in the German Spring Offensive, date of capture 21/3/1918. Detained in Standal POW camp. Moved to Merseburg camp, repatriated at the end of the War, via Hull.All above information supplied by ICRC.
Russell Evans
A/Cpl. James Stanley Howard 1/6th Btn Cheshire Regiment
My grandfather James Howard enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment Army Reserve on 13 Dec 1909. Between that date and the outbreak of the First World War he attended various annual training camps, during one of which he was promoted to lance corporal on 20 May 1914. He was mobilized into 1st Battalion on 5 Aug 1914 and promoted to acting corporal on 3 October 1914. Shortly after arriving in France he was captured at a place called Violaines, near La Basse and was confirmed as a POW on 22nd Oct 1914. Details of his units capture can be found in "The History of the Great War" by Arthur Crookenden (Col. of Rgt.) pages 28 & 29. He spent the remainder of the war in various Prison of War camps as listed below. The dates and places were supplied by the International Red Cross Committee: 16 Jan 1915 Wahn, 19 Jul 1916 Merseberg, 4 Sep 1916 Wittenberg, 25 Jan 1917 AltenGrabow, still there on 10 Feb 1917, 21 Mar 1917 Magdeburg/Sud (IRCC quote 'Hilfskrkanst' as part of the camp name) Detailed as arriving in England on 18 Nov 1918 on the SS "Willochra" on an undated list.Having returned to England he was transferred to Army Reserve on 18 Feb 1919 and then discharged from the Army on 31 Mar 1920. Having experienced the conditions of the Prisoner of War camps one would expect him to have settled for a civilian existence but he re-enlisted into Section D, Army Reserve at Chester on 28 Mar 1922 with Army number 4118343, rank - Private. He was finally discharged on 27 Mar 1926.
He re-enlisted yet again into the Territorial Army (Royal Artillery) with No. 4118343) on 27 Oct 1938. Embodied 25 Jun 1939, Disembodied 20 Jul 1939, Embodied 24 Aug 1939. Transferred to Cheshire Regiment and posted to 8th Home Counties Defence Battalion 24 Jul 1940 (late redesignated 30th Battalion). Posted to No. 2 Company 27 Jun 1942. Attached to G setion, 165 Provost Company as Cook 17 Nov 1942. Attachment ceased 28 Sep 1943 Posted to 2nd Battalion 2 Feb 1944 Posted to 38 Reinforcement Holding Unit 5 Apr 1944 Posted to 35 Reinforcement Holding Unit 12 Apr 1944 Posted to 24 Machine Gun Training Centre 30 Apr 1944 Posted to No. 4 Army Selection Centre 14 Aug 1944 Discharged again on 27 Aug 1944 as his services were no longer required.
Having survived through two wars he passed away on 5 Feb 1966 as a result of being hit by a car whilst crossing the road.
Harold Keith Howard
L/Cpl. Ben Schofield 1st Btn. Cheshire Regiment
My great grand father, Lance Corporal Ben Schofield no:9594, enlisted in the 1st battalion Cheshire Regiment on the 28th Feb 1911 at Chester.He was posted to Belfast on the 10th July 1911, where he had his tonsils removed in Musgrave Park Military Hospital and was paid 2 shillings compensation.
He was then transferred to Ebrington Barracks in Londonderry on the 10th Jan 1913.At the out break of the War he was returned with the Regiment to the Regimental Depot and sent to France, arriving there on the 16th January 1915.
Overall his conduct was listed as good for his time in the U.K. There is only one entry on his ‘crime sheet’ dated 20 January 1914 ‘’Awarded 21 days detention by the C.O for being in possession of goods which where the property of a comrade.’’
The Regiment then took part in the second Battle of Ypres. On the 8th of May the First Battalion were fighting around the village of Frezenbuerg, L/cpl Schofield was wounded in the right arm and back then captured.
After receiving medical treatment in a German field hospital he was transferred to Mersburg Prisoner of War Camp, Saxony, Germany. It was here that he joined No 2 Company, being given the P.O.W number 1514.
He was repatriated to Britan on the 9th of January 1919 and discharged on the 9th of April 1919.
After the war he settled in Belfast, he married and raised 5 children after finding work as a tram driver for the Belfast Transport Corporation.
Neil Wilson
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