War may have ended but there was no Christmas homecoming for our Pows
THE First World War may have finished on November 11 but that does not mean every Tommy got home for Christmas in 1918.
Soldiers in Prisoner of War (POW) camps across Europe faced an uncertain wait to find out when they would get back to Blighty, even with the war won by the Allies.
With Germany in disarray following the end of the conflict, it was not as easy as walking out of the camp as a free man and finding a passage across the Channel or North Sea.
Geordie soldier Sgt Thomas William Chisholm was one of those stuck in camps. The Jesmond man was just 21 when he was captured at Aisne in 1918, having fought in some the conflict’s bloodiest battles, including Ypres, The Somme and Passchendaele.
The war was over for almost two months before he finally found out when he could leave Darmstadt POW camp in Germany.
Sgt Chisholm’s grandson, Mike Orchard, has kindly shared diary entries written by his grandfather from the camp over the Christmas period, while he was stuck in Germany waiting for news of when he could return to his friends, family and home in Newcastle.
The fascinating logs include entries from Sgt Chisholm’s 22nd birthday, Christmas Eve and the day he left Germany for Denmark, bound for England.
Sgt Chisholm did not get to leave Darmstadt until January 1, 1919. He stayed in the army and retired as a Sergeant Major in his late 20s, living in Brandling Village, Jesmond and then Walker after the war.
Below are extracts from Sgt Chisholm’s account of the days leading up to and after Armistice Day.
My birthday, I am 22 today and I am very miserable indeed for I had thought to spend it in dear old England, but not so, but I had a talk with the cooks and it ended up in a nice little spread in our hut where we celebrated very well indeed under the circumstances.
There are rumours again of another transport on Sunday to include in it all cripples and every two days after that.
As a special treat today we have been given a large amount of sausage, from the Germans but I may say that very little of it was eaten as we have any amount of our own food now.
I suppose that this was sent as a peace offering owing to it being Xmas eve. Also included in the gift were two packets of tobacco and a Xmas card.
The tobacco proved only to be dried oak leaves, and the card we discovered had been intended for one in England, for on the side used for correspondence, were the words ‘Printed in Germany’, but