RootsChat.Com

I assume that the CO's permission was necessary to get the wife 'on the strength', but the practicalities of this in the circumstances are questionable.

The existence of the official listing of NCOs married while interned does indicate that the marriage was accepted though.

Highly unlikely the Dutch wife came to the UK, and no recollection of this in the family. The first of Charlie's children by the woman he was to marry in 1925 was born in early 1920 (followed by 2 more, and a third after he married), so it looks as if he 'moved on' fairly quickly !

Can any shed any light on the procedure (assuming there was one) covering war brides of exPOWs interned in Holland during the Great War ?

I am interested in 6812 Lance Corporal Charles Dennis Tyrrell, 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, captured 24.8.1914, imprisoned Soltau, interned Hague, Holland (from 1917), who married Geertruida Fredrika Lentz in December, 1918, and was repatriated in January, 1919.

I have found a partial list of soldiers in a similar situation - so the marriage was 'recognised' by the War Office, but there is no evidence of Geertruida coming to the UK, and Charles either divorced her or became a bigamist in 1925 !

Possibly, there was a Dutch divorce on the grounds of abandonment, but available Dutch records stop with Geertruida's marriage in 1918.

It is clear to me that, although it is very useful, this listing is not complete as a number of known POWs are not on it.

Note that only internees in Switzerland are listed, so it may be that the cards of internees in the Netherlands were moved to a different file ?

That would explain why my Great Grandfather 6812 Lance Corporal Charles Dennis Tyrrell, 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, captured 24.8.1914, imprisoned Soltau, interned The Hague (1917), repatriated January 1919, isn't listed.

However, it doesn't explain why Arthur Whitten Brown (of Alcock & Brown fame, shot down and captured 1915) isn't on the list of British POWs or Swiss internees under either Whitten (his mother's name) or Brown. Indeed there is no one listed with the surname Brown...