WW1 prisoners of war

[brina]

I have been trying to find out where my grandfather was taken as a prisoner of war but I have only been able to find his medal record and the information on that is exceptionally brief.   Unfortunately I cannot find his service record, his must be one of those which was destroyed.   It is interesting that I cannot find any of the young men in our family who fought in that war, all of their records are missing.   Would anyone be able to advise me?   I did think that perhaps I should wade through the Battalion/Company diaries as he was in the Northumberland Fusiliers.   I am sure that this question must have been asked over and over again so please forgive me for probably repeating it.   

Brina

[SalmonBlue]

Hi Brina,

Ideally you will need to put as much information as possible
full name
regiment
service number if you have it
this will then guide the clever people in the right direction
Sorry I cant help any more
Darren

[Stephen Nulty]

Some WO161 prisoner of War interviews are accessable at the National Archives Online.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/browse-refine.asp?CatID=20&searchType=browserefine&pagenumber=1&query=*&queryType=1

Use this search engine and with a bit of luck, you may find him. 

If he was a private soldioer (you don't say his rank), then it is unlikely that he will be mentioned in War Diaries, although some units do have quite a few such mentions.

Local newspapers are your best starting point, and will often contain a picture of a man with his name underneath and a simple comment, such as, "Jim Smith (Newtown), now a prisoner in Germany"

[katiespitfire]

My relative was Northumberland Fusiliers and I did get a copy of the battalion war diary from the archivist. As was mentioned, if he was in the rank and file he won't get too much of a mention. I found some newspaper photos on ancestry.co.uk but I'm afraid the cost put me off in the end.

There is a fair bit of info out there about POW camps like Lumberg. Good luck!

K

[brina]

My grandfather's name was William Henry Whellans and he was in the Northumberland Fusiliers.   He was a Private and his Regiment No was 27829.   I know little else about his war experience to be honest except that he was definitely a prisoner of war.   Any other ideas for tracing his whereabouts as a POW most gratefully received.

Brina

[katiespitfire]

I can only find his medal index card....

[brina]

Thanks for looking Katie - it is good to know that I have not missed anything obvious.   I guess it is just bad luck that his service record is one of those burnt/missing.

Brina

[corisande]

You have to find the battalion he was in, in order to get anywhere with his movements

There is not a short cut to this. You have to examine the medal roll in Kew.The Medal Card is in fact the index card that tells you where in the actual roll to look.

The War Diary for that battalion will then tell you what they were doing on a daily basis. War Diary is at Kew, unless you can find it as one of the ones available online.

From his service number you can tell when he enlisted. But it takes a bit of work. His MIC implies that he did not get 1915 star, so he dd not actually go to France before 1916.

If you plumb around Ancestry for the similar numbers you can find for instance that the man within 5 numbers of him died in June 1916. And so on

You could try the Great War forum to see if anyone has Northumberland Fusiliers numbers if you don't fancy that work

[brina]

Thank you so much for these tips.   I am a long way from Kew as I live in the Scottish Borders so I don't think that is possible at the moment.   I will try the Ancestry tip though, and also the Great War Forum if that fails.   Many thanks and herer's hoping.

Brina