Prisoner Of War Camp Hursley Park, nr. Winchester Hampshire

[DaveKey]

Whilst digging into the history of Hursley Park, nr Winchester, Hampshire during the Great War I came across the following reference to a POW Camp there that I was previously unaware of:

"Jones, 1st Lieutenant Thomas Clement, Labor Corps British Army, Commandant Prisoner Of War Camp, Hursley Park, near Winchester, Hampshire."

Jones, from Lindhurst Badyr, nr Cardiff, was at Hursley betwen 6th June and 31 October 1918 having served previously in France and Belgium where he was wounded and suffered from Shell Shock.

I would be extremely grateful if anyone has any information on either T.C. Jones or the POW Camp. I tried looking up his medal card (unsuccessfully but that may have just been my inexperience) and I don't know where to start on identifying British POW Camps. So any and all suggestions gratefully received

Cheers
Dave

[Moonraker]

It wasn't a major establishment and is listed as a work camp in Graham Marks' Prisoners of War in British Hands during WW1 and as such little information may be available. Security would have been relatively relaxed and in that part of Hampshire the PoWs would probably have worked on local farms.

Moonraker

[Aneurin]

Jones, from Lindhurst Badyr, nr Cardiff, was at Hursley betwen 6th June and 31 October 1918 having served previously in France and Belgium where he was wounded and suffered from Shell Shock.

"Lindhurst Badyr" doesn't look right. "Radyr" was then a small village outside Cardiff. "Lindhurst" was perhaps the name of the house in which he lived.

Gwyn

[David Porter]

The Service Papers for a 2/Lt. Tom Clement Jones are at the National Archives.

Reference WO 339/92659 (Formerly 178829)

The index also has "8 attd. Labour Co." so I guess it is the same person.

[DaveKey]

Gentlemen,

Many thanks for all of the information. More for me to follow up, which is great. as it's all helping to build a picture of the area at the time

Out of curiosity, is there much in Graham Marks' "Prisoners of War in British Hands during WW1" on the Hursley Labour Camp (beyond what has been added here)? I'm happy to try and get a copy but it'd be useful to have an idea of just how much information there is in it that will be of use/relevance.

Cheers

Dave

[Moonraker]

Just its one-line inclusion in a very long list of similar work camps. Sometimes I suggest a look in local newspapers (in this case the Hampshire Chronicle)might be worthwhile, but this would be a very long shot indeed. In my researches into PoW camps in Wiltshire I've only come across newspaper references to short-lived escapes, accidents on a farm and a prisoner rescuing an RAF pilot from a crashed aeroplane.

Moonraker

[domsim]

Dave

There is a relatively overlooked source of a lot detail on even the smallest POW work camps at Kew in the Foreign Office files. These are copies of the inspection reports by the Swiss Legation in London who inspected the camps, even the smaller ones, at least once a year. I got on to this doing a catalogue search as I am interested in the POW camps in Dorset. What amazed me is that big camps like the one at Dorchester (Poundbury) had satellite work camps (mainly for summer agricultural work) as far away as Worcester and even these are described in some detail.

Funnily enough I was up at Kew last weekend photoing some of them (see attaced for a flavour of the reports, the title page will make Moonraker's mouth water if he hasn't seen these before!).

Cheers

Dominic

Bit big but here is another

Cheers

Dominic

[domsim]

Hope people can read the images, you can always save them and lok at hen properly!

This is an example of the search I did on the National Archives catalogue:

POW camps in Dorset at Kew

There are lots of other papers about prisoners complaints etc. the interesting thing is there is a paper trail on these showing how sensitive the British government were about such complaints being made public!

Cheers

Dominic

[ianw]

I suppose the problem for HMG is that they can never be right in their treatment of these POWs - some would have resented every morsel of food given to them and the German press would have had a field day with every negative element of a report - best just to keep the reports secret!

[Terry_Reeves]

There are also a lot of work camps mentioned in the files of the Ministry of Munitions, including the type of work done and conditions ect.

TR

[Moonraker]

Dave ... the title page will make Moonraker's mouth water if he hasn't seen these before ...

Cheers

Dominic

Dominic: my mouth watered two or three years back! Yes, there's some very good material there relating to the major camps, though I got the impression the inspections didn't take very long.

There are probably references to agricultural working parties in the National Archives MAF (Ministry of Agriculture) files, though I've barely dipped into them.

Moonraker

[DaveKey]

There are also a lot of work camps mentioned in the files of the Ministry of Munitions, including the type of work done and conditions ect.

TR

Hi Terry,

Have you any examples or references I could chase up to get a flavour for the information they contain?

It's the problem of all the great help here ... I'm going to have to encamp myself at the POR at this rate to cope with all the references I need to check (mind you it's not a bad problem to have )

Cheers

Dave

Hope people can read the images, you can always save them and lok at hen properly!

This is an example of the search I did on the National Archives catalogue:

POW camps in Dorset at Kew

There are lots of other papers about prisoners complaints etc. the interesting thing is there is a paper trail on these showing how sensitive the British government were about such complaints being made public!

Cheers

Dominic

Cheers Dominic,

Fantastic stuff

Thanks

Dave