Great War>Prisoners of War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     Great War Home     Search     Add Stories & Photos     Library     Help & FAQs  Features     Allied Army     Day by Day     RFC & RAF     Prisoners of War     War at Sea     Training for War     The Battles     Those Who Served     Hospitals     Civilian Service     Women at War     The War Effort     Central Powers Army     Central Powers Navy     Imperial Air Service     Library     World War Two  Submissions     Add Stories & Photos     Time Capsule  Information     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     News     Events     Contact us     Great War Books     About Advertisements World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

Munster II POW Camp If you can provide any additional information, please add it here. Want to know more about Munster II POW Camp? There are:-1 items tagged Munster II 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 Munster II POW Camp during the Great War 1914-1918. Brady John. Cpl. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Chadwick Robert. Pte. East Lancashire Regiment Craven Francis. Pte. Royal Welsh Fusiliers Dickerson Walter. Pte. Rifle Brigade Dorrell James Henry. Gnr/Bombdr Royal Garrison Artillery Driver Frederick Charles. Pte. Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment Ellen Arthur William. CSM. London Regiment Elliott Reginald Frederick Edward. Pte. Royal Sussex Regiment Embleton Hans Major. Pte. Durham Light Infantry Embleton Hans Major. Pte. Durham Light Infantry Hollingsworth John Albert. L/Cpl. Lancashire Fusiliers MacDonald Frank. Pte. Canadian Mounted Rifles McCallum Angus Duncan. Pte. 16th Battalion McKerdle . Cpl. Royal Marine Light Infantry Sharpe William. Sgt. Leicestershire 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, please. Add a Name to this List Records from Munster II POW Camp other sources. The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website. 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time. Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the Great War? Our Library contains many many diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. Looking for help with Family History Research?    Please see Family History FAQ's Please note: We are unable to provide individual research. Can you help? The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation. Announcements 19th Nov 2024     Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264989 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit. Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to the Great War. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted. World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations. 258312 Pte. Hans Major Embleton 8th Btn. Durham Light Infantry My granddad, Hans Embleton, was taken prisoner at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. He was taken to a holding camp at Munster 2 larger and sent to work in the coal mines and coke ovens. I have just found out he was taken to Chimnitz prison camp February 1918 until repatriated to Britain December 1918. He was made to work in the salt mines with Russians and was starving as all the people were in Chemnitz. He finally got a good parcel August 1918 and managed to receive some more. He was told to work on after the Armistice or get no food the soldiers refused and were threatened with a machine gun but they still refused and then took control of the gun and the German guards gave up and fled the camp and town as the Russians moved in to take control. Derick Smith Add to this record. 256309 Pte. Reginald Frederick Edward Elliott Royal Sussex Regiment Granddad Reg Elliott joined up in August 1915 at the age of 20. He went off to the front with the Royal Sussex Regiment and in October 1915 he was captured at the Battle of Loos. He spent the rest of the war as a POW first at Munster II and then Dulmen Camp. He was 50 on D-Day and died in 1949 aged 55. Sadly I never met him. Keith Robert Ashby Add to this record. 255904 Sgt. William Sharpe 2/4th Btn. Leicestershire Regiment William Sharpe was taken prisoner at Ervilliers on the 25th of March 1918 and taken to Munster II POW camp in Germany. Christine Vahala Add to this record. 255376 Pte. Walter Dickerson 12th Btn. B Coy. Rifle Brigade Great uncle Walter Dickerson was captured on 30th of November 1917 at Cambrai. The ICRC POW record, which incorrectly lists him under Dickinson shows him as being interned at Cottbus on 20th of September 1918 having been moved from Munster II. A family story handed down is that he was tortured during his internment, which involved the removal or pulling of all of his finger and toe nails. He returned from the war without the use of his legs. He lived with one of his brothers, James in Kilburn, North London, where he used to propel himself about on a small wheeled trolley. He died in February 1947, age 68. Brian Kemp Add to this record. 255325 L/Cpl. John Albert Hollingsworth 2/8th Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers My granddad John Hollingsworth was in the 2/8th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. He was captured on the 21st of March 1918 near to the town of Roisel in France on the front line and was sent to Munster II PoW camp in Germany. He survived the war and returned to Salford in Lancashire and lived with his wife Georgina until his death in 1971. John Foy Add to this record. 254815 Pte. Hans Major Embleton 8th Battalion Durham Light Infantry My granddad, Hans Embleton, enlisted in June 1913 into the Territorials, joining 8th Durham Light Infantry. He went to training camps as well as working in the mines. In August 1914 he was at Morphia in Wales training. They where told to go to Folkstone to go to France to join the campaign. They marched through France to Belgium and filled in the gaps in the Second Battle of Ypres. After a great bombardment by the Germans that lasted for ten days and nights the Durham Light Infantry suffered heavy loses, and eventually only a few remained. They where taken prisoners, including my granddad, in May 1915. They where taken by cattle trucks to Munster and put into a holding camp until they where sorted out for work. My grandad was in Muster camp 2 and was sent to the coal mines in Oberhausen Westphalia. He was put to work. Every day he witnessed his comrades being beaten including himself and was sent to the coke ovens as punishment. He survived and was repatriated December 1918. He came to live with us in 1959 and he told me all about the war, being a prisoner and all the trauma he went through. When he got back to the receiving camp in December 1918, after they de-mobbed him, he signed a form. Little did he know he was signing his war pension away for just two pounds so he never received any. He died in 1973. He earned the Allied Victory Medal, British War Medal and 1914-1915 Star. Derick Edgar Smith Add to this record. 253447 Pte. Francis Craven Royal Welsh Fusiliers Francis Craven was captured after the 1st Battle of Ypres. He was held prisoner in Munster II until the end of the war. Add to this record. 238357 Pte. Frederick Charles Driver 7th Btn. Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment The following transcription is of an oral interview recorded in 1972, in which Frederick Driver related to his Grandson Robert his experiences during the First World War, with the help of his wife Dorothy. Many thanks to his great-granddaughter Angela Scott for taking the time and trouble to listen to the tape and type out the following account into a readable document for future generations to read. Track one: Joining Up Dorothy: Tell him why you joined up. Frederick: Why I joined up? I did, that's all. Robert: Why did you volunteer? Frederick: Just so we could go in the regiment of our choice, see. Robert: Yeah. Frederick: Then we get a choice of regiment, see. Dorothy And your brother was in. Frederick: If you waited later on, till 1916, you'd[ve] been forced to go. So you might just as well volunteer, you see. And I'd been used to horses and went on to the cavalry. Robert: Surely you knew all about the people that were being killed in Flanders in '14 and '15. Frederick: Yes. Well, we knew of course, of course you did. But you didn't know how many, did ya? Robert: You didn't. Frederick: No. Robert: You thought it [was] just sort of a side-show, Frederick: Pardon? Dorothy: Well, you really, you really went in because Jack was in it, didn't you? Robert: Yeah, yeah. Dorothy: So he could get in the 5th Lancers. Robert: Yeah, but you know, I've heard stories about women at the time, I mean, blokes who are walking around the streets without a uniform they were, er... Frederick: Well, you're thinking about the white feather business. Robert: That's it, yeah, the white feather. Frederick: No, never see none of that. Dorothy: Not in his time. Robert: No? Dorothy: No. Robert: Yeah, but when conscription came in, that ended all that didn't it? I mean, you had to go anyway. Dorothy: Yes, you had to go where they like to send ya. And them all in, in Ipswich and that, see, had to go in the Suffolk regiments. Track two: Dublin Uprising When we got down to the town, the middle of Dublin down Sackville street opposite the post office, the General post office they opened fire on us, see, rotten shots all they hit was three men and three horses and as soon as they opened fire the old captain says about turn and went back to barracks and he said we're going out as soon as we can dismounted so we went out as infantry more or less just with bandoleers full of ammunition rifles we went and routed them out of the post office in the morning see before dinner, and in the mean time artillery were ordered up from the Curraugh and they brought the guns into the dock at Sackville street right opposite the lawcourts, they were in the lawcourts as well these Sinn Fieners in the post office and the lawcourts, lawcourts were at the bottom of the Sackville street and they opened fire and knocked the lawcourts down the artillery from the Curraugh and in the meantime we went and took up positions some in the old Jacob's biscuit factory and and all the places they were likely to be in you see, took them over and simply rounded them up., And within a fortnight we'd got them all rounded up look and there they still carrying on we quieted them down in a fortnight. : - Yeah. Yeah then after the war was over cause they started again that's when they formed the black and tans they're volunteers you know from England the black and tans were. And they had to clear em up again in the meantime they're clamouring for home rule and they got it see cause Ireland was partitioned wasn't it the south from the north. Track Three: The Western Front Yeah, but when you, after you had joined up and that, I mean, what, Robert: When did you first go over to France then? Frederick: Umm. August 1916. August '16. We went over and we joined the Queens out there, you see, the Queens regiment. The 7th Queens. That was, the 55th Brigade. The 18th division we come up in. Robert: What sort of ship did you go over in? Frederick: Ooo, don't know, well, er, old freighter thing, you know. Robert: Yeah? Frederick: Yeah. From Folkstone we went, to Folkstone, to Boulogne. Robert: And then you went up. Did you go straight to the front? Frederick: And then we went...No, we had to go to...we stayed the night in Boulogne, up on the camp there. And the next day we had to go join the Queens. They were up, um, near Albert, place called Albert, out at rest at the time. Then we done some, done joined the battalion, you know. I was put on headquarters battalion, with Machine gun, headquarters machine gun. By going to headquarters They could put us anywhere, you know what I mean? To any company. Robert: Yeah. Frederick: See? A, B, C or D company. We could go anywhere. They could put us in the line, you see, or, which company was ever in the line you'd have to be with 'em, you see? Robert: Can you, visualise now what it was like? I mean, can you visualise what it was like at that time? Frederick: Well, plenty of shells dropping around. In as soon as you got in range, you know? Robert: Yeah? Dorothy: What about the time when you all pinched the bread from the bakers? Frederick: Oh yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, we were going right up, right up into the, up in the front line, you see. We're going up right, going into the front line and we was way back at rest, and we was put in a billet, in an old bakery, you know? A bakery. One what was using, they were still in use; French bakery, see. And the old Baker he used to bake his bread, you know, during the night time, ready for sale the next day. And my brother, and another: an ol' Kelly, watched the old baker leave and then went and pinched his bread. We got the gun: we'd got gun limbers for Lewis gun, you know, and the guns had gone up on the horse limbers, you know? A horse wagon like. Our guns had gone up with them so our little gun carriages were empty. Two wheeler gun carriages, see, for a gun, carry the Lewis guns and ammunition see, plenty of ammunition. And they were empty. So what old, what my brother did, and the old Irishman, they stole the bread and went and put it in the trucks, empty trucks. They were all lined up beside a wall, you know, and they filled them up with bread. And the old Froggie come in daybreak and found his bread all gone. Played up merry Hell. French Police, he called the French Police up and our Police, you know; Military Police. Played up the Devil, he did. They looked everywhere. They searched our billet and everything. Packs - everything. Never found a loaf. And they were right in front of their noses, in the, in the gun trucks. Full of bread they were, yeah. Robert: What did you do with all that bread then? Frederick: We had a good feed. And the next day we got on the march up to the line, you know? And as soon as we got under shell fire the young captain he says, "Halt!", you know, "Fall out on the left of the road." And we opened up our gun trucks, you know, and out come the bread [laughs]. So, one of the boys picked up a loaf; "Would you like a piece, sir?", you know. We was all under shell fire then - only about two miles from the line. Yeah. And nothing was said about that. Never got into trouble over it at all, 'cause he never reported us, you see? Dorothy: He asked, he asked where you got it from, didn't he? Frederick: He knew. He knew, didn't he. All the officers knew, all the blokes knew, didn't they. But as soon as they was opened up it was a laugh. Everybody was eating the French toopang, you know, long loaves. Dorothy: See, didn't you get some cheese from somewhere for them? Frederick: Pardon? Dorothy: Didn't you get some cheese? Frederick: Cheese? Dorothy: Yeah. Frederick: Oh, we had plenty o' cheese. Half the blokes wouldn't eat the cheese, you know. It used to lay about in the billets. Robert: Where did you first go into action, then? Frederick: Erm. When? Robert: Where. Frederick: Up at Thiepval. Thiepval on the ridge, at Thiepval. Thiepval, Mericourt, Grandcourt. Robert: You was in all them places were you? Frederick: Lotacourt. In front too, Frederick: Yes, in front of that, we were cause. Robert: Yes. Frederick: 'Cause, April, when they went over, the Vimy Ridge, see, we was in front of that. Yeah. Robert: What did you do in the line? Frederick: Well, we just had to hold the line, you see - go in t' the front line. Plenty o' shellin' an' all that business, you know? On our way up he was dropping shells, gas shells of one sort or another. You know, all sorts. Frederick: Several times we laid out in the shell hole, you know, with the old gun, between the two lines. Didn't mind it, and used to like it because the shells were going right over us, like that, see? Robert: Yeah? Frederick: All the heavy stuff, and light stuff an' all, goin' right over. If you was in No Man's Land you was the best off. Through that winter, anyhow. Frederick: If you laid quiet a German patrol would pass you, perhaps. Bullets would be whizzing over the top of your heads. Zip, zip, zip, zip, you know. Just lay doggo for the night. Bloomin' cold though, frozen. Dorothy: Jack got wounded? Frederick: Oh yes he did, and a night or two before that. Dorothy: Yes. Frederick: When we were laying in support a shell came over: A whizz-bang. And we were in a fairly big trench, and... Both together in the front line, look, and a whizz-bang came over. What they call a whizz-bang - that was their light artillery. Good guns they were, similar to our twenty five pounder. And a shell - I could hear it coming. It hit the top of the parapet and burst. It blew my rifle right out of my hand. My brother got a bullet, behind his ear here in the neck. Robert: Yeah? Frederick: Yeah. Got back to Blighty with that. I took him back to the end of the trench. The old Sergeant Major, they were in the dugout there, I said, "Well, I'll take him back." He say, "You won't. You won't.", he say. "You'll stop in the front line" [laughs] So, he got back to Blighty, look. Another few days after that, then, I was captured. Robert: You were captured in 1916 then? Frederick: No, '17. vRobert: When? Frederick: 1917. February 1917. February '17. Robert: Yeah? Frederick: And that was a place called, er, Irles. I.R.L.E.S, Irles and that was too...we was... See, which I tell you what was happening: The Germans were falling back at that time, which they used to do. They'd pulled back on to better ground and that, you see - leave you in the muck and mire and shell, you see [laughs]. And (pause) Oh, a dawn patrol. When they were falling back, see; "Any volunteers for a dawn patrol?", so we all volunteered, with the old gun, you know, and just a rifleman or two, see, to go out before dawn, an hour before dawn. We was to go up the communication trench into Gerries front line; a village. And part right along the front of the village, a place called Irles, I.R.L.E.S., and went past the front of it and up his communication trench for about a mile, see. Never saw, never saw anything of them. They kept doggo, you know, they laid quiet, they let us come. And and all of a sudden they jumped. Some of them jumped out the trench, and we let the old, I let the old Lewis gun let 'em have it, you know, as they ran way. Then the old gun blocked, you know, which they would do, a Lewis. They used to jam. Two bullets used to. A couple of cartridges used to try to get in the [barrel at once], and that'd block, you see. Tried to get up the barrel. So when the old, stopped, and we were in their communications trench he simply come round us, you know, they come up from other trenches, 'cause they knew the trenches better than we did, you see. We was in their communications trench, therefore they got, they got, surrounded us, and just cut us down in the trenches as we were...see? They could get right, they could get forward or to the side of us or behind us - which they did do. Got right behind us, because we was through their lines, see. through their front line about two miles. Frederick: ...A funny thing, where you used to talk about what would, what would happen to us. When we was in support, or quiet, or back at rest, used to think about what would happen to us. Somebody would say, "I shall get killed, I know I shall.", see, and they used to too... I said, I thought I wasn't. Something told me. Well, I didn't know what was going to happen, you know. What I mean, I wasn't going to get killed but I couldn't fathom out what was going to happen to me. But I was nearly a deader mate, I was nearly gone. Dorothy: They saved his life. Frederick: Yeah. Germans saved me life. Robert: Yeah? Frederick: You know, by binding up, you know. The blood was coming out in a stream like that out of my stomach here. They simply got my doings, you know, bound me up tight and that. And still the blood was coming through. So he took the... Dorothy: Off another... Frederick: Yeah. Another fella who was shot beside me, he weren't...he's right next to me. Right there, in the temple. And they took the bandages of his, you know, bound me up double lot, you know, really bound me up tight. Dorothy: Didn't they put a stone in to stop it? Frederick: No, not a stone. No, no. They bound it down solid, you know. That stopped the bleeding. And they... I wondered what the Devil they were going to do with me, you know. They took me out [of] the trench, lugged me out the trench, and they put me [on a] couple of oil sheets, laid a couple of oil sheets down and laid me in it, and they brought the sheets together, you know, at the top, and laced them through, and then put a pole through. That's how they carried me back, Germans. Good idea that, was no waiting for the stretcher bearers. They were smart in the trenches... They'd all had medical [training] and all that, they know exactly what to do. We lost a lot of lives through that you know, because our chaps didn't know what to do, you know. They'd all been trained in medical [first aid] you see, and I, I, pretty thirsty, I kept asking for water. They, they, you know what they done? Got a bit of bandage and dipped it in their coffee, you know. They'd coffee in their, they used to carry coffee instead of water in the water bottle. They dipped the bandage in the coffee and let me suck it. They wouldn't give me a drink you know, it would've been fatal, see. Although I'd lost a lot of blood, must o' done, 'cause I was sinking, you know. Felt I was. Robert: You was wounded with a bullet? Frederick: Pardon? Robert: You was wounded with a bullet? Frederick: Yeah, yeah. Bullet, yeah. Robert: When you was surrounded, didn't you surrender or anything then? Dorothy: Well, you didn't know, did you? Frederick: No need mate, no need. No, no need to put your hands up or anything. Just taken over. You're, ain't it, you're finished, you know that, and the Gerry knows it too. Frederick: Well, if you get into their lines anything could happen. Same thing would happen with a German patrol. They was pinched as well, just the same and that. That was only done so that each side should know where the others are, that's what they wanted to know Dorothy: That was nothing for you to be up to your waist in water and mud was it? Frederick: Cor, if you slipped off the duck board you was in it, you know. ..My feet were swollen so much they cut the boots off, and the trousers. They were rotten in blood, you know. They just tore that off, leggin's too, yeah. Frederick: ou know that took us some a day and two nights to dig a bloke out. Robert: Yeah? Frederick: Yeah. To dig him out! The more you kept digging the deeper he kept sinking, you know. The water and the mud, we kept throwing it out. Dig behind him, we used to dig down behind him and put a blanket under the backside when you got him over. So you pull him back and lift him out with this blanket, see, 'cause the old mud and ooze and stuff was all...it used to hold you like glue. Just like glue. Track Four: Prisoner of war Frederick: They took me into a dressing station you know, the Gerries did and that, and then into a horse ambulance, you know, course they were nearly all horses in them days see. And then we went up an old disused railway, you know, that had been cleared away and that. Was in a sunken, sunken road for about three or four miles up towards Cambrai. They took the rails up and used that as a road, see. And that un and that was deep, about as deep as this house perhaps, you know. Robert: Mmm. Frederick: Between two banks they used to use that for ambulances to go up and down, see, from the front line up to Cambrai. And even then they went, they took me from Cambrai up to Mons by train, you know. Robert: Mmm. Frederick: And their hospital there, what they call reserve hospital. Prisoners and Germans all went into the same hospital, see, in the clearing station like. Big clearing station; Mons. I remember I was operated on in that same evening. I laid there for a day or two before they moved me right up north to Munster, in an old Monastry that was supposed to be a hospital. We had our beds, was three boards with a straw mattrass on it. Bag o' straw, that was hospital, look [laughs]. Robert: What did you do there? Frederick: I was in there several weeks. They kept the wound open for weeks. They used a bandage, you know, a sterilised bandage, used to tuck in, like that cause that was septic. Dorothy: Did that turn septic? Frederick: I reckon it did because I..., weeks and weeks they were poking this, these bandages in every day, see. Dorothy: Yes. Robert: Where did you go to prison camp, then? Where was you a prisoner of war? Frederick: Pardon? Robert: Where was you a P.O.W. then? Frederick: All over, in different camps, you know. Er, from...Parsham was the name of one. Frankfurt, Franfforter, Maine. The, all different places, you know. Doblemann was another camp. And I used to volunteer to go out on the... It wouldn't do to stop in camp, you know, to, no. Volunteer to go out on working parties, see, on the farms or anywhere else. Dorothy: What about the time you went where there was some ducks? Frederick: Oh yeah, yeah. On a big farm we had, they had four ducks there. We managed to get them. Dorothy: You was with... You was with Russians, weren't ya? Frederick: We used to live in a big room, in a lock up, you know. Big room with a big old stove in, with twenty or thirty prisoners. [Among] twenty [of us there] might have been only four Englishmen and a few Frenchies, you know, and Russians, chiefly Russians. And Poles, yeah. So, two Englishmen, they took the, they took the bars apart, you know, from the window, and went out and got, pinched these ducks off the pond. They were locked up in a duck house on the pond, big pond, you know. And they went round the field so they shouldn't follow the feathers. and that, you know. Got 'em in a sack and brought 'em home. This old sentry had gone out, Saturday night it was. He'd gone down the town to have a drink, see, only one sentry. And we got a bucket and cooked these ducks, you know. Drawn, plucked 'em and put them in a bucket and boiled 'em up. Dorothy: Ah. but how did you get rid of the innards? Frederick: Ay? Dorothy: You burnt all the innards. Frederick: Buried the feathers and stomach and that, you know. Buried them. Robert: How did you get on with the Germans in general then, at that time? Frederick: Pretty well, you know. Yeah. Dorothy: Bar once when you couldn't eat the potato soup. Frederick: Oh yeah, yeah. That was on one job, couldn't drink the soup. It'd got maggots floating about on it. Potato soup, and a little bit o' meat here and there, but maggots. Seventeen Englishmen on that job, and we none of us, us Englishmen, wouldn't touch it, you know, wouldn't look at it. And so the old Sergeant Major what was in charge, German Sergeant Major, you know, he say, "You won't drink it?" "No, we're not going to have that!". He lined up seventeen sentries [and] he lined up us seventeen, here. He said, "If you don't, if you don't have the soup I'll shoot yer." See? One man: [One] sentry, we knew he doesn't do that, not on a big job like that, you know. We was, "No!" He stood, lined us up, he lined us the post, his sentries up, you know, and seventeen against seventeen. We stood there about half an hour. He got fed up. Thought what he would do I suppose, "You'll all get punishment. You'll all be confined to ground for twenty four hours." No blanket or nothing see. They had some underground, er, sort of barrack, you know what I mean? Purpose [built] for the job. So they put us down there for twenty-four hours. Just a drink of water. Coo. Dorothy: And you had to go on sleepers, didn't yer? Frederick: Ay? Dorothy: Railway sleepers? Frederick: Oh yes. Sent us up on the, sent us up on a job on railway sleepers, you know, iron sleepers they were. Frederick: Pick them up beside the railway, about a foot of snow. As you picked them up so the blinkin' skin come off yer hand, frozen, you know what I mean? Sort of pulled the skin off your hands. Another rotten job, that was. But on the farm it was decent. The German people themselves hadn't got nothing to eat. That was all sent to the front line, see. They were actually starving beginning 1917, they were. The cows weren't getting any food, they couldn't give much milk. British people didn't know that, no. Nor did the troops at the front. If they.. .All the stuff used to go to them, see. The civilians weren't getting much. Children were as thin as rakes, all with rickets, you know. Then they wouldn't give in, see, not even right up to 1918 they wouldn't. Robert Scott Add to this record. 236833 CSM. Arthur William Ellen 5th (City of London) Battalion London Regiment Arthur Ellen was the third and youngest and only surviving child of John Ellen and his wife Alice (nee Stone). Born on 22 July 1885 at 87, Corranes Road, Brixton, South London.Arthur was baptised on 4 October the same year at Christ Church, Brixton. The Census of 1891 shows him living with his parents at 85 Cornwall Road, Lambeth and the Census in 1901 records him still living with his parents at 20 Winterwell Road, Lambeth. Census 1911 shows him as a visitor at 90, Dunton Boat House, Weybridge, Surrey where he gives his occupation as a tailor, so he has followed in his father's footsteps. On 20th of May 1915 he is described as being a Company Sergeant Major in the London Rifle Brigade, and is being nominated for Freedom of the City of London. He was also a member of the Freemasons' London Rifle Brigade Lodge, which he joined on 17th of October 1913, and so clearly his military (probably voluntary) service began before World War One. Married Ethel Eleanor Mundy on 25th of April 1914 at St James's Church, Weybridge. Both give their address as 1 Oxford Villas, New Road, Weybridge (Ethel's family address) and Arthur gives his occupation as being a tailor. There were two children of the union, William (b.1916) and Mary Ellen (b.1920). He continued to serve in the Army during World War On and was wounded in fighting near Arras in April 1918. He was originally listed as missing in action on 28th of March 1918 but was subsequently found among a group of prisoners. He was later transferred on 12th of June 1918 from a camp at Pamur to a camp known as Munster II. Electoral Registers show that they continued to live at New Road until 1922 when they moved to 47, Church Street, Weybridge. They remained there until at least 1929, the latest records I can currently locate. He died at 26 Ashby Road Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire on 31st of August 1941 leaving an estate of £2327.15s.5d. although his home address was 79 Warren Drive, Tolworth, Surrey. It also to be noted that at the time of his death he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Ordinance Corps, Service number 100800. He was buried at Weybridge Cemetery, Surrey. Brian Barber Add to this record. 236560 Pte. Robert Chadwick 4th Btn., C Coy. East Lancashire Regiment My grandfather, Robert Chadwick, was a POW for 10 months in the Munster II POW camp. He survived the war and emigrated to Canada in 1920. Add to this record. 231519 Pte. Angus Duncan "Dunc" McCallum 16th Battalion Great Uncle Dunc (as he was known) was born on 10 September 1880. Before the Great War, Dunc McCallum worked as a soap maker, clerk and labourer. He tried to enlist on 27 July 1915 but was rejected because of weakness of the heart and cardiac murmur. He re-applied in March 1916 and was enlisted on 21 August that year at the age of 35. After basic training at Blackboy Hill, he was assigned to the 20th Reinforcements of 16 Btn and the unit finally departed Fremantle on the HMAT Suffolk on 13th of October 1916. After a short training period in the UK the unit crossed to France on the Princess Clementina on 28th of December 1916 where they undertook more rigorous training. Finally Dunc was taken on strength in the field on 11th of February 1917 at Bazentin. The 16th Battalion were in the thick of things at the Battle of Bullecourt (the black day of the AIF) on 11th of April 1917. There were significant casualties killed and wounded with 300 captured. Total 16 Btn losses on that day alone were 17 officers (from a total of 20) and, 623 other ranks (from a total of 797). Dunc was one of those casualties, having been wounded by shrapnel in his left knee. He was interned firstly in Dulmen POW camp until August and then transferred to Hembahn, Munster II Camp where POWs were assigned to work on farms and forests and often enjoyed a superior diet to the civilian population. After the Armistice, Dunc was allowed generous leave in the UK until he was repatriated to Australia on 5th March 1919 and arrived in Albany on the SS Nevasa on 13 April. He spent 6 days in the sick bay suffering from myalgia on the journey home and was discharged as medically unfit on 3rd June 1919. He married Whilemina Denyer later that year, joined the WAGR (keeping it in the family) and was on the staff at Swanbourne Station as a railway porter for 16 years. He was described as a man of remarkable personal charm with a kindliness of character which won him close friendships. Dunc passed away peacefully after a long illness in 1950. He was buried at Fremantle Cemetery in a non-military grave. The Office of the Australian War Graves Commission recently have commissioned an official plaque in the Garden of Remberance plus a small plaque to be placed on Dunc's existing grave. Wendy Mahoney Add to this record. 229863 Gnr/Bombdr James Henry Dorrell 32nd Siege Battery Royal Garrison Artillery James Dorrell was born in 1884 in Homerton, London. He joined the Garrison Artillery in 1904 and served in Belfast until late 1911. James then transferred to B Reserves on his marriage and moved to Stanley, County Durham, where he worked at the West Stanley coal mine until recalled in 1914. His former unit 15th Company was remustered and became numbers 31 and 32 Siege Batteries. Jim was in No 32 and went to France on 1st October 1915. He served at Kemmel, Ypres and on the Somme. James was taken prisoner on 30th November 1917 during the German counter-attack at Vellers-Guislain during the Battle of Cambrai. He arrived at Munster II POW Camp on 22nd January 1918. James returned to Stanley after the war and later moved to Southend on Sea in Essex. He died in 1975. Paul Dorrell Add to this record. 226783 Cpl. McKerdle Royal Marine Light Infantry Cpl McKerdle was captured at the Battle of Antwerp. He was sent to Munster II POW Camp. Add to this record. 226776 Pte. Frank MacDonald 1st Btn. Canadian Mounted Rifles Frank MacDonald was a prisoner in Munster II POW Camp, after being captured at Sanctuary Wood on 2nd June 1916. He escaped to Holland from the Auguste Victoria coal mine, where he had been sent on a work party. Add to this record. 226690 Cpl. John Brady King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Cpl. Brady was captured at Le Cateau on 26th August 1914, probably during the retreat from Mons. He became a POW at three camps: Sennelager and Minden, both in Westphalia, and at Munster II in Rhein. Add to this record. Recomended Reading. Available at discounted prices.