Burnley in the Great War
Soldiers taken prisoner of war
(initial research by Alan Mackay and Denis Otter)
As part of the ongoing development of Burnley in the Great War, research has
been carried out into those men from Burnley who became Prisoners of War between
1914 and 1918. This can never be an exact exercise because the information is
patchy and gleaned from many sources but mostly from information provided by
relatives, and the soldiers themselves, to local newspapers.
We would be very pleased to receive any information and photographs about these
men or any other Burnley PoWs not listed. We have at the present time 1,890
files/photographs of 1914-1918 PoWs and it must be appreciated that it will
take some considerable time to put all these on the site, especially when some
of them have yet to be listed on "Those
who served and survived."
Examination of the information reveals that 70% of the men were captured in
1918 and about 50 spent most of the war in captivity having been captured in
1914. Unfortunately the PoWs were very poorly treated by the Germans and at
least 57 died during or just after the war and many others in the following
years - at least one man Charles
Smith 6742 1st East Lancs was murdered by the camp guards after 4 years
of captivity. One PoW escaped from captivity Alfred Birley MM became an officer.
