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| Linton
in Pictures |
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A History
of Linton
in Photographs
Available here |
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THE GERMAN
PRISONER OF WAR CAMP AT LINTON 1917 TO 1919
There was huge excitement, mixed with a certain degree of apprehension
in the Village in May 1917. The old yard at the Workhouse in
Symonds Lane had been surrounded by barbed wire and a garrison
of thirty five armed guards prepared the hutted War Camp for
the arrival of sixty five German Prisoners of War.
They arrived by train from Cambridge on May 18th and by late
June there were one hundred POW’s in the new Camp. Local
children must have turned out to stare at them as they marched
out under close escort for their eight hour working day on the
local farms.
Shortages of native male farm labourers meant that farmers competed
to employ them. The Germans were renowned for their hard work.
Even though we all read in our history books that German civilians
were starving by 1918, local papers reported that huge food
parcels from Germany regularly arrived in Linton. The POW’s
were evidently not short of sugar and butter which by then were
rationed in Britain.
Most of our own local soldiers imprisoned in Germany had arrived
home by Christmas 1918, but the Germans remained here in Linton
until October 1919.
A crisis of conscience faced Lintonians in 1919. Forty
seven local men had died during the War and most families
had suffered grievous losses. Many men returned badly wounded
and most other ex-soldiers were left permanently scarred by
their War experiences. Yet the War Graves Commission set aside
an area for the War dead in Linton Cemetery and buried Leo Schmidt
in a plot on this site on April 3rd , 1919.
He had died in the Linton Camp, possibly of influenza. On April
9th, Stephen Cottage of the Suffolk Regiment died at his home
in the Horseheath Road. Stephen had been wounded and discharged
from the Forces in July, 1917 and he was now buried in Linton
Cemetery next to the German soldier. Three days later the body
of another German POW, Karl Strauss was placed on the other
side of Stephen Cottage’s grave.
There was considerable gossip in the Village since his widowed
father, Harry Cottage had not been informed in advance about
this second burial. Irate letters appeared in the Cambridge
press and the War Office was pressurised to remove the two German
bodies. A lesson in true compassion followed. The Reverend Edwards
of Linton informed the public that Harry Cottage had no objection
whatsoever to the two German soldiers lying at rest next to
his beloved son.
In 1965 the bodies of the two German soldiers were exhumed and
taken to the German War Cemetery at Cannock Chase.
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