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Description: | 88 ms letters and telegrams, with 8 ms postcards, written home chiefly while a prisoner of war in German hands after having been wounded and captured during service as a Major with the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment (11th Brigade, 4th Division) on the Western Front, July 1914 - November 1918, describing his enthusiasm at entering a war with Germany, the fighting in the Battle of Le Cateau (26 August 1914) in which he was wounded and his attempts to escape back to British lines before being captured, the medical treatment he received in German hospitals, his transfer to the officer prisoner of war camp at Halle, the lack of news received from home, his fellow officer prisoners, his interest in the new 'trench fighting' (May 1915), his move to another camp at Augustabad (June 1915), his enjoyment at walking in the woods for exercise and the local bird life, the receipt of parcels from home, his transfer to a camp at Heidelberg (July 1916) with a view to being exchanged via Switzerland, then to a camp at Crefeld (March 1917) where he refers to entertainments before returning to Augustabad (May 1917), his hopes of being interned in Holland, the prisoners' amateur dramatics society and the plays performed, his transfer to Switzerland (November 1917) where he describes the warm reception given at Berne and his billets in a hotel in Interlaken, his appointment as Commandant of the British internees, the feeling of freedom experienced after years in captivity, entertainments organised by the troops, his move to another hotel at Vevey (April 1918), his impressions of the Swiss landscape and wildlife, his engagement to a British lady he met while in Switzerland (October 1918), and Armistice celebrations.
Cataloguer APR
Catalogue date 2007-06-15 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Collins, E R | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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