POW WW1

[donna petrie]

My grandfather William Henderson Petrie served in WW2 and was a POW. I would like to know more about his battalion, service and record. I was able to see his medal card. On another site they said that some of the records for this battalion or POW information was lost in a blitz during WW2. Does anyone know how to go about researching this information?


I have a photocopy of a letter he wrote to my grandmother form the POW camp- see information below. I posted a pic of him with a few men from the battalion in the gallery.

He was in the 9th battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He went to Ireland to join up. The POW camp name is Neuhammer. His serial number is 26721 ( or 26921), and the date is July 21, 1918, the location is Prisoners camp Neuhammer... There are two other words after but too hard to read. looks like "af quris"?

If anyone can give me more information on this topic or how to get it myself I would be most grateful. Donna

[WilmaM]

Try contacting the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Museum in Enniskillen Co Fermanagh.

www.inniskilling.com is the web address but it isn't coming up tonight
snail mail address: Regimental Museum, The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, The Castle, Enniskillen BT74 7HL tel:028 66323142

I telephoned them once and they were eager to help, though at that stage I had little to go on.

My own Grandfather was in the 'Skins' too and was also a POW, but I have little or no details of that part of his life as he never spoke of it to my father.

[donna petrie]

Hi: My grandfather did not talk about it too much either. Although the family got the impression he blamed the English for the whole debacle. perhaps an English commander?

I also made a mistake in my original post- it was WW1 not WW2. Sorry. donna

[HeatherH]

Hello Donna,
My Grandfather was also a POW in WW1 and just a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to find papers about his time in the German Camps written his after his escape. You can see what kind of info you can expect from this by reading my post in the Success Story section.

First I would recomend the site Behind the Wire for information on POWs in WW1 and a possible search for records for them.
http://www.1914-1918.net/POW/index.php

Secondly I had bought a genealogy magazine and found an article that mentioned that the National Archives had recatelogued their data base and it was now not only searchable but it was possible to download what you find indexed.(Much like the Medal Index)
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/pow.asp

The author of the article in the magazine is a member of Talking Scot and I have had a post from him after I posted about my Grandfather.
I wish you all the best in your search.
Happy Hunting,
HeatherH