Captain James Bury Sterndale Bennett MC 1889 - 1941 A Journalist in a German POW Camp

 

Captain JB Sterndale Bennett

Captain JB Sterndale Bennett is another officer in Schweidnitz camp who took my attention. Born in Derby in 1889 he was the C Company Commander of the 2nd Sth Wales Borderers and was  commissioned on 26^th April 1917. He married an actress, Athene Seylar before the war in February 1914 but the marriage was short with the pair divorcing in 1922. However, they did have a daughter.  He joined up after having worked as a journalist.

JB Sterndale Bennett, film star wife Athene and daughter Jane Anne

 

After a battle where there were 101 fatalities, he was captured in Lys in April 1918, he ended up in Schweidnitz by 25 July  1918. Prior to that he had been awarded a Military Cross for his actions in February 1918.

During his time in Schweidnitz he was the BARB Magazine, Associate Editor for the October 1918 addition.  This was an in-house production of the POW magazine written and produced with humour and details of life behind the” Barbed wire”. It  contained prose,  short stories, humour, satire fake, advertisements and detailed pen and ink drawings.

Also, as a journalist, he saw the world from that  inquisitive viewpoint.  He made many observations about the German thinking and perhaps predictions about post war life.

I first came across Sterndale Bennett from an article I read  in a magazine called “The Great War…. I was there! in which he tells the tale of the  Schweidnitz POWs  from Armistice to repatriation on Christmas Day 1918. 

 

In the article he first speaks of the German thoughts at the Armistice. Most of the locals expected upon Armistice that the blockade which was stopping them trading would be raised to the Germans. To their complaints about the lack of food he pointed out their censorship had never allowed their enemies to know of their plight.

Indeed, later he recounted that point at a dinner when he returned home and a guest told him that his comments were “Nonsense. They had plenty of food.  You can’t have read the English newspaper”. Mmm propaganda!  In fact, Sterndale Bennett had had access to German newspapers which they read for practice and to relieve boredom. 

“Nonsense. They had plenty of food.  You can’t have read the English newspaper”. 

With three weeks of comparative liberty after Armistice he looked at methods of German commerce. Also,  during his time in Schweidnitz  he met with all grades of society and formed a clear idea of what the Germans at that time were thinking and hoping for the future. He could see the Germans were believing their own propaganda.

During the waiting days before Armistice and before going home Germans had said to him “We have done everything you asked”. ”We have abandoned Kaiserdom, Prussionism and militarism. Yet you treat us as enemies.  You do not send us food yet. You will not be friends again!”

From the German perspective it was “our women and children have died from starvation”.

In all, he had spent nine months in Schweidnitz. His opportunities to observe methods of German commerce and industry from his limited scope of the POW camp were supported by the ability to buy newspapers printed in German. This kept him in contact with the German hopes and thoughts. He also had contact with German  businessmen in that they ran the prison. 

 

An article by Sterndale Bennett popped up in the Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser, New South Wales on 9 August 1919. No doubt this was a reprint from British newspapers.  It was titled “The German Menace of Cheap Jack Goods – Resumption of Former World Trade”. Sterndale Bennett was using his intelligence gained in his time in Germany. He dispels the fears the British subjects had that the Germans would dump cheap goods on the British market. Rather they (the Germans) had the feeling that they would merely resume trade as before the war. They did not for one minute think they would be  boycotted or stopped from visiting or immigrating to England.

“The average Englishman cannot forget. The average German has forgotten”.

In this August 1919 article he says “The average Englishman cannot forget. The average German has forgotten”.  He finishes the article saying that Germany will be  for many years repairing the damage of war and as such not really a threat for serious competition in world markets.  His main fear was that the most serious threat was Germans seeking to enter the more plentiful countries,  past enemies or not, and offer their labour cheaply.

For more on Sterndale Bennett’s story see the future Repatriation story about the Repatriation of Schweidnitz POWs.

Sterndale Bennett  was granted the rank of Captain in July 1920. He worked in London as a journalist and Editor post war. In the 1939 Register he was also listed as a part of the Army officer Emergency Response. He didn’t see the Second World War out, dying in London 1941.