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.

Another escape…. Captain William Crawshay Loder-Symonds 1886-1918 accompanied by Captain Jocelyn Lee Hardy 1894 - 1958

There were other attempts to escape Schweidnitz POW camp. In fact, multiple escapes from all the POW camps and from trains on route were common. Even officers eligible for internment to in Holland considered it wiser to escape with the hope of returning to their Army or Royal Air Corps contingent to fight for another day.

One such fellow who escaped from Schweidnitz came to a bitter sweet end. He packed a lot in from his escape on 1^st March 1918 to his death  on 30^th May 1918.  His escape partner was another notorious escaper, - Captain Jocelyn Lee Hardy who  wrote a semi-autobiographical book called “I Escape” . I am referring to Captain William Crawshay Loder-Symonds who was of the Wiltshire Regiment.

Loder-Symonds received his Commission in 1908. He was originally taken prisoner when he was captured and wounded with a gunshot wound to the leg in Caudry on 26 August 1914. He had arrived in Schweidnitz via Cambrai and Munster Hospital,  Halle, Torgau, Burg and  Mainz. After an aborted attempt to escape, he was sent to Freiburg POW camp

Captain William Crawshay Loder-Symonds

In February 1917, he again escaped and travelled to Ashen by train where he was recaptured after spending three weeks of hell in a civil prison. He escaped again and returned to the civil prison  and then the Burg POW camp for a stint of imprisonment before a trial at Madgeburg prison for attempting to bribe a guard when he was re-captured.

His POW exit interview shows he was a man of attitude giving as good as he got . After a short stint at Holzminden he was sent to Freiburg in October 1917 where he escaped again and made it to the Swiss frontier back at Freiburg. He got seven days imprisonment for having civilian clothes, seven days for possessing money and 14 days for escaping on 23 December 1917

Finally, he was sent to Schweidnitz POW camp  as far from the Swiss  border as possible. He  was there about the same time as our men most of whom arrived around December /January. He being captured so early was well and truly eligible for interment in Holland. He had refused to give his parole in a desperate attempt to return to the fighting.

In his War Office interview, he  spoke quite favourably of Schweidnitz talked of the English trying to acquire a football field for 150 marks per month and the "parole walks” in the local surrounds. He speaks of the theatre built by merchant seamen  and the insect ridden bedroom furniture.

He was court martialled again and given 24 days imprisonment. He had befriended the Merchant Marine skippers who wore civilian clothes. This mufti would be handy and willingly supplied in an escape attempt. Loder-Symonds was a popular man who was desperate to escape once more. He had befriended Captain Jocelyn Lee Hardy.

Captain Jocelyn Lee Hardy

Hardy of the 1^st Connaught Rangers had been a POW since being captured in Maroillers on 27^th August 1814. He had escaped 4 times and Hardy 6 times previously. Although the two men knew that the tunnel was being dug, they did not believe, it was near completion. In one last daring bid for freedom Loder-Symonds and Hardy made their move on  1^st March 1918. They had both been prisoners for about 3 ½ years.

400 miles later they had escaped and avoided detection despite the numerous placards offering a 500-mark reward for their apprehension. As they crossed the wire boundaries at night, they tore their clothes to ribbons.

Approaching a sentry on the Dutch side, he directed them to “the nearest inn where they received a most hearty welcome and obtained food and the loan of clothes. ” Farrington Advertiser 23rd March 1918.

For Loder-Symonds’ parents, his injury and capture  was cause for much heartache as three of the five brothers had given their lives for the country during the war.

 He had to complete the customary Statement as to the circumstances of his capture and his POW experience.  After consideration by the War Office his file is noted as “exonerated” entitling him to his medals.

 

Part of Loder-Symond's Prisoner Statement referring to Schweidnitz

His return home was a town celebration. Loder-Symonds arrived at his home on March 14, 1918 at Hinton Manor near Farrington  Berkshire England.  He was received back home with much pomp and ceremony by the locals for an emotional welcome. He was received by the King at Buckingham Palace!

After his escape from the Germans Captain Loder- Symonds could have taken a staff appointment but he was keen to return to action.  He married Mallonay Wearing in early April but days later he went to train as a pilot for the RAF attached to No 25 Training Squadron at Thetford. On 30^th May while flying a DH6 C6853 his plane stalled on turn and nose- dived.  He died as a result of this accident – newly married and just 32 years of age.

Of the 5 Loder- Symonds brothers who served, only one survived. Their sister died as a passenger aboard Galway Castle when it was torpedoed by German U-boat U82 on 12 September 1918. Such tragedy for the family.

That other colourful character, Hardy returned to the war via the 2^nd Inniskilling Fusiliers. He finished the war with a Gunshot Wound and a leg amputation which saw him back in England again just before Armistice.  He received a Distinguished Service Medal and a Military Cross for his efforts. His story is documented in ‘I Escape’ .  He died 30^th May 1958 in Hammersmith, London.

Hardy's semi autobiographical book  "I Escape!"

 

Lt Humphrey Wilson 1894-1997

 

I discovered a Monsignor Humphrey Wilson on our list of Schweidnitz POWs. Intrigued that there might have been a priest in the camp and with nothing else to go on I followed a note that he was interviewed for the Liddle collection at the Leeds University. I received a transcript.

What an interesting story. He was born in 1894 in England,  one of six children of Thomas Charles and Annie Wilson. I discovered he was baptised in the Church of England on 22 November 1894 and was schooled at the Waterford Grammar School.

He  went to Western Australia to work and was a bank clerk at the Bank of Australasia  in WA at the beginning of World War I. Having volunteered in the military in Australia he was rejected due to a health condition. So, he returned to UK shortly after. Before that an Anglican Bishop in Perth tried to recruit him thinking he would be a good clergyman.

Humphrey had already been to Australia and back before enlisting

 Returning to England, he enlisted again joining the Grenadier Guards before receiving a Commission three months later. It was with the Territorial Worcester’s and eventually went to the Machine Gun Corps where he served in France.

Despite his upbringing as a member of the Church of England, he converted to Catholicism “to the sound of guns” during his time in the Somme in 1916 under the influence of Father Austin McCabe, Redemptorist Army Captain and Captain  Fr CB Pike, a Dominican who also went to Karlsruhe POW Camp.

Seeing service in the Somme at Passchendaele, he suffered briefly from a gassing and then returned to the trenches where he saw thousands die. He was reported missing on 30 November 1917 in the battle of Cambrai.

On 7 January 1918, his mother  and received a telegram via the Red Cross at her home in Bushey Hertfordshire England. It read “tell Bushey Lt H Wilson prisoner Karlsruhe was well.” He arrived at Le Cateau at Karlsruhe on 4 January 18. He admitted  that in Karlsruhe  they were starving but the Germans were starving too.

He arrived at Schweidnitz by train on 14 April  1918 just after our men had escaped and he remained there until Armistice. Prior to that he had transferred through Trier POW  camp meeting lots of Flying Corps men on the way.  There he like others have reported enjoys the food parcels from home with tobacco.

He spoke highly of the respect Germans had for the offices in the camp. He like others would share their food parcels with the starving Germans. He was fortunate that during his imprisonment he was in the Catholic part of the country. “We were there for a year and it wasn’t the worst time of my life.”

Around the time of the Armistice, he was asked by Major Warner to move to another part of Germany to take some prisoners back home with a fellow POW Peacock who fortunately spoke German. It involved about 1000 prisoners to  go into the Dutch frontier on what was to be an overcrowded train of 1100 people. When he returned to England he was repatriated on 6 January 1919 and upon returning he was demobbed quite quickly . 

Humphrey needed a job and many people supported his desire to become a priest. After studying in the English College in Rome in 1919 he was ordained.” in September 1925 at Saint Barnabas is Cathedral in Nottingham. 

Father Humphrey Wilson

 

In 1931 he was appointed Vice-Rector of the Venerable English college in Rome. This was an important position in Rome and his local Diocese wished him every success.

He later served for 52 years  as a parish priest until retirement and was co-founder of the Diocesan Rescue Society (Catholic Children’s Society).

At 100, he became a Monsignor, gave up driving and declared modern traffic too fast! He died at age 103 a priest for 70+ years on 15 November 1997.

 "A man is not only happy but wise also if he tries during his lifetime to be the sort of man he wants to be found at his death" - St Thomas à Kempsis Imitation of Christ

Monsignor  Humphrey Wilson's chosen obituary passage