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Description: | Ms and ts drafts of his First World War memoirs, giving a good account of the experiences of a 1914 volunteer from Sawston (Cambridgeshire) commencing with a farcical medical examination, posting to the 8th Battalion The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) and training in Canterbury, Shoreham and Blackdown Camp prior to active service on the Western Front, the circumstances of his capture during the Battle of Loos (Hill 70) in September 1915, when he was initially reported as killed in action, transfer to Germany and confinement in the `Rennbahn' camp at Munster, with much useful detail on conditions in the camp and the various nationalities, particularly the French and Russian POWs, escapes, punishments and religious observance, the arrival of Italian POWs in 1917 and his transportation to the Baltic shortly afterwards on a working party based near Riga, logging and road-building work, the harsh conditions (including brutal punishments), his part in the organising of religious services, and concluding with his return to Munster and repatriation at war's end; also several postcards written from Munster, a newspaper cutting concerning the erroneous reporting of his death, a pamphlet about the `Rennbahn' church, photocopy of his `Souvenir of Captivity', and a large number of photographs/postcards of scenes and individual prisoners at Munster.
Cataloguer SWW
Catalogue date 2003-03 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Reed, H | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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