A volunteer's experience

D/DLI 7/424/3(8) P.H.B. Lyon with fellow officer prisoner at Karlsruhe Camp, Germany, [12 June 1918]

The blog has used the memoirs of Captain PHB Lyon, 6th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry several times for interesting content. This particular one, ‘A Diary – Seven Months of Captivity’ [D/DLI 7/424/3] (written up in 1919), about Lyon’s time in a prisoner of war camp in 1918, was used for Ambrosia, thou art become and This is their week of destiny.

One of our volunteers, Sue, has transcribed the diary and has written this piece about the experience:

I found the photographs and souvenirs included in the diary interesting, and I was amazed that they survived and he was able to bring them home after the war. I could almost feel their sense of freedom as war ended and they were allowed to walk freely without guards, in the surrounding countryside and town. There was almost a ‘holiday’ feel to their days out.

As he described the arrival at Leith, I could hear the joyous sound of whistles, bells and ship’s hooters.

I have just completed transcribing the final pages from the diary of Percy Hugh Beverley Lyon MC, a DLI officer in a WW1 prison camp. It completely changed my vision of a PoW camp. Their biggest danger was from boredom, not the Germans . To combat this they set themselves a daily routine, setting up a debating society, theatrical groups, a library etc. Obviously food was a major concern and was mentioned almost every day.

D/DLI 7/424/3(18) Outside the tin rooms, German orderlies enlarging the lockers, here all parcels were stacked and issued and tins stored, Graudenz, October 1918

The following is an extract taken shortly after Captain Lyon arrived at his final camp in Graudenz

[now Grudziądz, Poland]

JUNE 19th I begin to work out a scheme for my day’s work Wednesday and reading, which I mean to follow till classes start. Roughly it runs as follows:- 9.15 to 10, make my bed, sweep and wash up. 10 to 12 or 12.30 work at elementary German or, if inclined at my own writing. (The ‘poem’ has got a certain way, but is just now sticking badly, I am out of my depth.) After ‘lunch’, rest or write till 2 o’clock. Then read till 5, when I change my book. In the evening I generally play bridge or write. As a rough programme it works fairly well. Fortunately Murray has a German grammar, which I share or rather monopolise, as he is not very fit and not inclined for work. The day passes uneventfully, though the unusually good pea soup at lunch is worthy of mention. A few parcels have begun to come in, and great excitement prevails among all who have any hopes of them. At 5 o’clock I change my book for ‘Captains Courageous’, which I enjoy now (having forgotten it) as much as I did 12 years ago.