POW - John William WHETTON

[BJC]

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.   

[t mo]

hi bjc
do a google search several sites come up which should give you an overall idea of pow,s in ww1 .
regards
trevor

[BJC]

Thank you Trevor. 

[km1971]

... I think I once tried to find out but records for Prisoners of War do not seem to exist...

The Red Cross have a card on most POWs. However they are currently digitising them and they are therefore not available until 2014. Previously access was free for direct descendants (about £80 to others), but it took 6 to 12 months to answer a query. Hopefully things will improve after the project is completed.

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/article/other/archives-first-world-war-2011-07-27.htm

Ken

[BJC]

Very interesting Ken, thank you.     I can't wait for those to come out.  I'll have to be very patient.   

Joy

[mmm45]

With what you say about captured by Germans and the dates on his medal card I suspect he was in the 9th Batt Sherwood Foresters

9th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Derby in August 1914 as part of K1 and became part of 33rd Brigade in 11th (Northern) Division. Moved initially to Grantham. Moved to Frensham in April 1915.
Sailed from Liverpool in early July 1915 for Gallipoli, landing at Suvla Bay 7 August 1915.
Evacuated from Gallipoli December 1915, moved to Egypt via Imbros.
Moved to France in July 1916

Basically Egypt on the card signifies Gallipoli.If captured out there it would more than likely have been the Turks.

9th Batt moved to France in 1916 so this sounds better that he was captured in this phase although he also served in the Durham Light Infantry so maybe captured then?

Ady

[BJC]

Thank you Ady, a most interesting reply. 

I agree that he was most likely captured in France if it was to be by the Germans.

What puzzles me, maybe you can explain, why would be also serve with the Durham Light Infantry?
I've seen this on his medal card and often wondered why? 

Joy

[mmm45]

Joy
Without a Service record it will be hard but men often were moved for reasons such as been wounded,Sick or battalions were decimated after a battle and therefore disbanded and men moved

Ady

[BJC]

Or maybe when he was released at the end of the war?