Pages

Marshmoor WWI prisoner of war camp

North Mymms Notes - No 12



Photograph of Marshmoor POW camp guards 1918. Image from the Peter Miller archive
Photograph of Marshmoor POW camp guards 1918
Image from the Peter Miller collection
A WWI prisoner of war (POW) camp in North Mymms, built by the inmates themselves in 1916, and housing 210 captives, was, it's claimed, used as a source of cheap labour for the local timber industry, with interns being paid 1d (the equivalent of about 20p in 2018) an hour.

Local historian, Mike Allen, has been researching the Marshmoor WWI POWs and finding out about the lives of the prisoners. He's illustrated the piece (below) with images from the Images of North Mymms collection.

 Mike's investigations into the North Mymms POW looks into the living conditions of those held captive in the parish and how some locals feared the prisoner work parties labouring in the nearby railway sidings would commit "filthy nuisances or any other spiteful damage".




No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments on this piece
If you have any information to add to this item, please use the comment box below. We welcome input and are keen to update any piece with new research or information. Comments are pre-moderated, so there will be a delay before they go live. Thanks

Further information
If you require any further information relating to this, or any other item, please use the contact form, because we are unable to reply directly to you via this comment box. You can access it from the 'contact us' link at the top of any page on the website, at the bottom of the right hand side of the website, or at the bottom of any page.