The book below is a "pay" book given to the POW`s and seems to have a regular amount paid in.

Konto-Gegenbuch pay book

Withdrawals appear to be for bar tabs and laundry!
If anyone can shed any light on the entries please contact us

The inside of the pay book

Choose a picture to view from the list below -

photo 1 Two proud Navy men stand for a photo.

photo 2 A game of cards in the hut.

photo 3 A group of French soldiers pose in uniform.

photo 4 What appears to be fence mending duties?

photo 5 Officers posing for a snap.

photo 6 Soldiers at Camp Oxney, 1910?

Your Reponses:

Mary Somerville - Oct '06
Interesting set of photos, I have just discovered that my grandfather was a POW. A letter recieved by my grandmother does not paint such a pretty picture as these images suggest. Quote from the Central Prisoners of War Committe " We have found that a great many men have not survived the treatment they had to endure, and feel sure it is only right to let you know that there is cause for anxiety." Anxiety indeed, she subsquently discovered 6 months later that my grandfather had died of dysentry at Asfeld hospital in 1917.

Eileen Shone - July '06

Very interesting, my grandfather Charles Hetherington Ward was master of GER ship Cordova and was taken prison in 1916. The Cordova was a collier trading out of Newcastle/Sunderland/Seaham. His chief mate was also at this camp but the rest of the crew seem to be elsewhere.

As typical of the day he was a free mason and the society got word, via the german equivalent, to the family that he was alive and well before the british government did. As a young child in the 1960's I was shown a photo of him in a large group at the camp. I don't know where it is now, sadly. If I can track it down I will send you a copy.

My 8 year old [his great grand daughter] is doing a school project on how transport as changed and this is my link to the sea!

Hope you are able to keep this aspect of our families alive i the memory. sadly I never knew 'the skipper' as he was affectionately known, him dying april 1958 before my birth sept '58.