Today I was thinking about my grandfather, as I often do, who was fortunate enough to survive WW1.
It would be interesting if I could find out more about his time in the war but so far I've not found out much. I think I once tried to find out but records for Prisoners of War do not seem to exist.
My mother always tells the tale of how he was captured by Germans - don't know where - and was kept in stocks. Food was very scarce but because of his lovely singing voice a girl on the other side of the fence heard him, took pity on him and sneaked bread through the holes in the fence. He hid it away from his captors and managed to survive with this girl's help
How much of this is true or part of my mother's imagination (she has a vivid imagination!!) I don't know. It would be good to find out but don't know how I would.
He was John William WHETTON (born 1889 in Clay Cross, Derbyshire) of the Nottingham & Derby Regiment (Sherwood Forresters) and, according to his war records, was in Egypt. Presumably this would be where he was taken prisoner. His regiment No. was 22500.
I'm wondering if he was taken to Belgium. I have a passport of his showing he travelled there after in 1920, maybe to visit a lady out there, the one who helped him?
Maybe someone here could shed a bit of light on this but I'm afraid the information I have is very sketchy.