Expert’s Choice
The International Committee of the Red Cross’ free database of First World War POW and civilian internee records is the best starting point for researching a captive from this period: icrc.org/en/document/world-war-i-1914-1918-find-relativeour-archives. Launched in 2014, it consists of five million index cards, covering two million prisoners of war, which link to 400,000 pages, providing information that can include lists of names, camp transfers, dates and place of capture, and deaths.
The index cards also include missing men about whom enquiries were made. Initial hopes that they might have been captured led to cards being raised so that the names could be checked against the lists of prisoners that trickled in – there are four scans of cards relating to Rudyard Kipling’s lost son John, for example.
However, it is not a complete listing and is quite complicated to use, although a valuable glossary and guidance are provided (worth reading before you start). Be aware that alphabetical order is not always strictly followed, and the categories can be a little loose. For example, under ‘British Servicemen Missing in Gallipoli’ there are three references for Chaplain Harold Spooner, captured at Kut in 1916, showing he was held in Bor and Kastamoni camps.
It is exciting to be able to see the actual records, and the many different languages and distinct styles of handwriting bring home the international nature of war – and how easily mistakes could be made with information as it passed through so many hands. The website also includes photos and reports (primarily in French), and you can build on what you learn from the records by using sources at The National Archives, IWM and other places. Sarah Paterson’s book Tracing Your Prisoner of War Ancestors: the First World War was published by Pen & Sword in 2012