Morale lifts with each Red Cross Parcel

Thinking back to World War I ……what was worse than your son or loved one being away fighting in the war?  Death and injury rates highest but what a feeling of helplessness to be told your relative is missing- in- action or a Prisoner of war POW being held in the enemy territory.

Relations living thousands of miles away in Australia, New Zealand , or Canada would be trying to think of ways to ease the pain to keep them alive or warm. I’m thinking it would take months to transport goods to individuals.  The deliveries from Britain would have been a little shorter.  Some families were hard pushed finding food  and clothing for themselves let alone for the POWs. In true war time spirit people mobilized under the auspices of the Red Cross charity to provide food, clothing etc to the men.

We now know in hindsight that the Germans were suffering their own shortages of food. Food supplied by the Germans to their prisoners/soldiers was very meagre- only a small amount of meat and vegetables to make a watery soup or stew. It was a starvation diet so if they were lucky they got some sort of soup, potatoes and black sour bread. They could not be supplied with any more as the Germans did not have food themselves and there was none to spare.

Originally the British Government was sending food but this was stopped by the Germans. There were fears that the food contained all sorts of secret contraband such as compasses etc. Many shipments were destroyed. Later the International Association of the Red Cross and the order of St John collaborated to coordinate relief for the British POWs through a Central Prisoner of War Committee.

 

A Replica package

 

Back in the home front the Red Cross parcels provided vitals for sustenance to the prisoner. In some cases these were paid for by relatives or donations. Parcels included clothing, food, soap and toiletries.  Cigarettes and games such as draughts, cards and dominoes were included. Parcels were sent fortnightly to the POWs. Some would go astray and men would share amongst themselves. Occasionally men sent letters to their families requesting specific items of warm clothes and coats.  Further afield people did their best to ease the discomfort by knitting and selling gloves and socks.

Money was collected to fund purchases of  food and  cigarettes etc. Over 395,000 parcels and 36,000 clothing parcels were  distributed by Australian Red Cross alone.  

The standard parcel contained

3 tins of beef

2 tins of cheese or loaf goods

1 tin of dripping

2tins of milk

a quarter of a pound of tea

a quarter of a pound of Cocoa

2 pounds of biscuits

50 cigarettes

 

Donations collected for the Central Prisoner of War Fund from those at the home front exceeded £674,908 in fact over £5 million was spent.

New Zealand relatives had the choice of buying a choice of parcels for 4 shillings or 6 shillings for a toiletries and clothing parcel.  

Sometimes parcels were searched and at other times the German guards would steal the contents of the parcels. When Lt Alan Barrington Hill arrived home  in Australia on 31 March 1919,  an article written in the Sydney Morning Herald  saw Hill  complaining of the mess Commandant Neimeyer made of their parcels.  During his stint in Holzminden POW camp after the 24 attempted their escape he complained that Neimeyer used to mix the contents of the Red Cross and other parcels “so that they were unusable”.

Letters from loved ones were also facilitated by the Red Cross and often there were requests to family members for much wanted supplies. Michael Bowes Lyons writes

June 27^th Wednesday [1917]

1^st ENGLISH PARCELS..... four parcels from England. Three large tongues, some biscuits, butter, which arrived good but melted, a lot of toilet things which will be very useful, especially the soap of which I had none. The biscuits were too delicious. The tongue will be invaluable. The other parcel was cigarettes unfortunately!

June 28^th Thursday [1917]

Life is really very thrilling just now, one expects things and letters every day. Food is still of great moment & we have to do a lot of economising, but things are not half so bad as they were. We don’t really feel hungry now but a healthy longing for food. We have been doing very well in coffee & cocoa & tea lately & meats for the last few days including breakfast...... A dozen eggs are coming for Simonds which will be wonderful if they aren’t bad.

 July 2^nd Monday [1917]

Two parcels from London, six tins of sausage, two of milk, three Veal & Ham pies & three tins of salmon, quite the best I’ve got so far.

Our men were officers and as such did not have to work.  They had plenty of spare time. They were able to request athletic equipment, balls, books etc.

An officer named Goldsmith upon returning to New Zealand gave an interview in the Auckland Star on 4 January 1919. He told of his use of items to plot an escape. Occasionally the POWs used the food in parcels to bribe the guards to help them escape. For example two cans of dripping and a tin of bully beef could get you through the gate after dark. Another time a set of roller skates was swapped in exchange for a quarter pound  packet of tea or coffee.

Red Cross  were also sending out medical supplies. Once such parcel  was an embarrassment of riches when local medical people had not seen these items in months. The supplies were put to use and shared in the town.

Sometimes a prisoner would be moved around a lot and it would take months for parcels to get through. The New Zealand Herald reports that Capt Avey said that it took 4 1/2 months before his parcels arrived for him. In this time he lived merely on the German rations supplemented by supplies from the fellow British officers.

A letter from NZer Lieutenant Gordon Robertson who was also in Schweidnitz writes home of the hardships “ this is the last place on earth you want to come to”. He complains that he has to be supplied with food by relatives in England the German allowance being too meager to afford any sustenance.

 

Local news of the need for supplies

The arrival of food parcels from home provided a welcome boost to morale . For those who had relatives in England supplies were more varied as parcels could be sent more swiftly to the men. As an added advantage for the officers, they were able to cash cheques on their own Banks which enabled them  to order cheese in cans and butter from Denmark and bread from Switzerland.

Red Cross Xmas passage 1917

Captain Sterndale reported that after the Armistice on the 11th of the 11th and the officers were waiting repatriation, Red Cross parcels were still getting through. Upon seeing the hardship in the town the officers would stuff their pockets with chocolate and biscuits to give to the local children. While out on their walks, hungry children with hollow faces would follow the men as though they were the Pied Piper.  Towards the end of the war he guesses that 75% of the parcels got through and that even though many never got past Holland his feeling was that the Germans would not have stolen them.

Canadian Edward Desbarets wrote of his love of receiving the packages .

Excerpt from Edward Desbarets memoir supplied by grandson Alec 

Even so close to leaving the camp on 26^th December 1918, Desbarets writes in his memoir of the much appreciated final parcel of Christmas food and the postcard from the Red Cross girls!

 

 Excerpt from Edward Desbarets memoir supplied by grandson Alec 

Australian Lt RH Richardson in a letter back home from Schweidnitz sent some time in 1918 expresses the dependence on food parcels from home and gives great praise to the Red Cross for their help to the Prisoners of War.  

Australian soldiers from Schweidnitz were grateful: Punch (Melb) 10/10/1918

Thank you RED CROSS for your role in both wars and continuing today.

Officers' Capture Statements make for good reading.

 

When they returned from the war many of the officers had to make a Capture Statement regarding the circumstances of their capture by the enemy as well as make statements about the conditions in the prisoner of war camps. This was recorded within days of their return.

This would’ve been necessary to prove:

1.      1.  Blame attached to the officer in regard to their capture

2.      2.  Any follow up for war crimes committed by the enemy

All officers returning from captivity were interviewed and exonerated as appropriate.

Part of Mark Strelley Fryar’s statement is in the following screenshot.

Part of Mark Strelley Fryar's Capture Statement

 

He attempted to escape a few times.  He gives the circumstances of his initial capture and subsequent camps he was housed in.

We have been able to obtain many of these from the National Archives and it may well be useful as a sort of memoir for your relative whether they were in Holzminden, Schweidnitz or other camp. Details are recorded in a time line by date and location. It often details escape attempts, routes travelled and conditions of the camps.

One other interesting report we have read is that of Lt Jocelyn Hardy. Hardy was a multiple escapee who wrote a part biographical part fictional book called “I Escape”  I read his book as I believed he may have escaped one time with Fryar. His statement runs to pages.

 

Part of the Capture Statement Lt JL Hardy 

They had to complete a standard army form explaining the circumstances of their capture. Other ranks did not have to follow the same procedure. The War Office (IIRC) vetted these forms looking for any recklessness, cowardice or neglect of duty.

Contact us if your relative was in Schweidnitz and we can help you source this document if we haven’t already.

Most times, after this statement was completed, they were exonerated by an announcement in the London Gazette which stated they were on “the exonerated officers list”. This meant the exonerated officer who had been a prisoner of war, upon being released, was found not to have contributed to his capture. Being exonerated was most likely a condition of being entitled to his campaign medals. This comment was also often evident on their medals card. 

 

Mark Strelley Fryar's Exoneration

 

WC Loder Symonds Exoneration meant he could collect his Medals 

 

Messrs COX and Co Enquiry Office

Messrs COX and Co Cheque

 One of the valuable sources of information we have used during our research is what we refer to as the “COX and Co booklet”.  COX and Co-is a collection or “List of the British Offices taken prisoner in the various theatres of war between August 1914 and November 1918‘‘. It has been  compiled from records kept by the Messrs COX and Co Enquiry Office in London. 

Cover of 1919 Messrs COX and Co List

 Messrs COX and Co were bankers and regimental agents set up in colonial times and at colonial outposts who  arranged for Officers’ pay, insurance, income tax returns and even provision of his clothing. The bank  had expanded from the staff of 180 at the onset of war to 4500 in 1918 with women replacing men called up during the war.

Their task during WWI was to issue pay and manage Officers' bank accounts. They cleared cheques for Officers departing for or returning from the front. They would often  be clearing 50,000 cheques per day.

Due to the volume of inquiries about injured soldiers in the Expeditionary Force a Messrs COX and Co Enquiry Office opened in a small room of Lord Harrington‘s house  adjoining the bank in September 1914 and expanded a few months later into the Music Room in his house until the end of the War. Between September 1914 and February 1919, the Enquiry Office was never closed to the public for a single day.

At the outset the aim was to give advice and information to relatives regarding wounded Officers. Here they  were able to collect information about Officers, especially their whereabouts and condition and also assisted in the conveyance of messages to and from wounded prisoners in hospital in France.

This task expanded when they began  collecting information about missing or Prisoner of War Officers. Often the first information of an officer being a POW and therefore alive was that his cheque was cashed. A high volume of cheques cashed by offices in captivity passed through Messrs COX and Co Bank. It is known that a volunteer from the COX and Co Enquiry Office wrote to relatives stating that “Missing Officer”  had cashed a cheque in “XYZ city” on “date” . Such a valuable use of information. What a godsend this must have been for worried families. 

Part of the Preface from Messrs COX and Co List

 After the war the information was compiled into a fantastic database with information about 8700 Officers.  It was originally  published in 1919 by Messrs COX and Co. It was completed from the records kept by the Enquiry office.  

The information recorded on each officer includes

• POW's surname, first name
• Rank
• Service Unit
• Dates reported missing  
• Dates taken prisoner of war
• Date of internment
• Date of repatriation

Some listings contained more records such as deaths in captivity.

There is no such similar record of soldiers in the expeditionary Force who were taken prisoner.

Why were the Officers cashing cheques?  Lt Eduard  W Desbarats Flying Officer from Canada wrote in his memoir about cashing cheques to buy little supplements to their food parcels from the Red Cross.

From the memoir of Lt Eduard Desbarats shared by Alexandre Desbarats

The Messrs COX and Co Bank fell on hard times due to the downturn in business after the War and was taken over by Lloyds of  London in 1923.