"Worshipful Sir & Bro.,

 

We the undersigned brethren, at present interned with other British civilians at the concentration camp at Ruhleben - Spandau, Germany, send hearty good wishes to the Grand Master, officers and brethren in Great Britain, hoping that we may have the pleasure soon of greeting them personally."

 

 

DRAMATIC NOTICE:

Norman G. Kapp, resting, Box 16, Bar 3.

"Mr. Frederick Keel and Mr. F. W. Hughesdon have given genuine pleasure by their singing, of particular interest being Mr. Keel's performance of some beautiful Folk-Tunes from Normandy and Brittany, arranged with admirable ingenuity and perfect taste by MM. Edouard Moulle and Bourgault-Ducoudraye."

"Worshipful Sir & Bro.,

 

We the undersigned brethren, at present interned with other British civilians at the concentration camp at Ruhleben - Spandau, Germany, send hearty good wishes to the Grand Master, officers and brethren in Great Britain, hoping that we may have the pleasure soon of greeting them personally."

 

We could have put a creditable boat on the river at either of the universities - stroked, perhaps, by Mr. Kindersley, son of the President of the O.U.B.C., who had himself rowed for Cambridge, or else by Mr. Tom Sullivan, once a champion sculler.

My great grandfather was a prisoner at Ruhleben from 1914-1918. His name was (Alfred) Hazell King. He was born in August 1896 in Winchester. He was an only child. Early in 1914, as an 18 year old scholar he was sent to Berlin to study languages at the 'Instutut Tilly', with a view to going to Cambridge university in 1915. He was interned at the outbreak of war. During his time at Ruhleben he learnt Russian and Italian through contact with inmates of those nationalities. He appears to have been assigned to 'Post Office duties' while there.

 

After release, at the age of 23, he went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, studying Classical Arabic. After Cambridge he joined the Levant Consular Service and was first assigned to the British Consulate in Athens. Here he married Mary Eileen (nee Lowry) in April 1925. During his consular service he was assigned to many countries including Egypt, Morocco, Persia, Turkey, Hamburg  immediately after the 2nd World War, and finally to Buenos Aires where he died in 1956. His wife Mary (my grandmother) lived until 2002, and is survived by 3 children, 10 grandchildren and 23 (at the last count) great grandchildren.

 

I can vouch for the fact that from March 16, 1915, when I was interned, to March 7, 1916, when I was released, neither the American Ambassador nor any of his staff had been present at the Ruhleben kitchen during the serving of a meal.

Cyril King was born in Kent in 1896.  His father had been in the Indian Civil Service, who on retirement, had married a German girl from an aristocratic Bavarian family.  When war broke out in August 1914, Cyril was in Germany with his now widowed mother and his sisters.  He had been about to enter his final year at Winchester College, and would shortly have been of military age.  He was consequently interned at Ruhleben.  His mother and sisters were allowed to go to Switzerland, and eventually made it back to England.

In Ruhleben, he shared some sort of a horse-box with Jock Balfour and (before his repatriation) Timothy Eden.  Looking back on his Ruhleben experience, Cyril felt that on the whole the Germans treated them fairly and that probably  internment had saved his life.  An elder brother and many others among his Winchester contemporaries became the junior Army officers who led their men “over the top” in France and never came back.

Cyril King returned to England immediately the war ended, and in January 1919 went up to King’s College, Cambridge, to read Economics (somebody had suggested that having missed his last year at school and being rusty concerning school subjects, he would be at less of a disadvantage in a non-school subject.)  His supervisor was J.M. Keynes.  A “War Degree” meant that he graduated in 1920, and he received a 2:1. 

He rejected Keynes’ encouragement to stay at Cambridge and try to become an academic economist.  Instead, he returned to Winchester College to fill in for an absent master of French and German, which he followed by studying at the Sorbonne for a few months in the summer of 1921.  He then went to Bradfield College, primarily to direct its triennial production of a Greek play in its Greek theatre--its 1922 production this was Antigone.  While at Bradfield he became interested in “progressive” education and cycled to Petersfield to see its most famous example, Bedales.  He decided that he wanted to teach there, and was on the Bedales staff from 1923 to December 1928.  

He then decided to the study psychology, something which at that time required, in addition to academic courses, three years of psychoanalysis.  He then worked for the London County Council as an educational psychologist.   When the Second War came, he and his wife, Joan, whom he had married in 1937, were about to have their second child.  They decided to leave London for her parents’ home in Ilkley, Yorks, where Cyril became involved in various sorts of war work, including the Home Guard.  In 1942, he returned to teach at Bedales, where he became Second Master in 1947.  He retired from Bedales in 1963.  He died in 1969.

Mr. King spent eight months at Ruhleben, having previously endured two months solidtary confinement as a suspected spy, a charge on which he was acquitted.

"While in the prison yard one day for exercise, I met a Scotsman, Henry Kirkpatrick, originally from Dumfries, and chief engineer of the Union Cold Storage Co., Ltd. He had just arrived in prison after having made a very plucky escape from Rubleben a fortnight before. Although fifty-two years of age, he had been the first among four thousand men to attempt to escape from Ruhleben and after a very adventurous fourteen days' tramp had somehow or other become separated from his companion, who spoke perfect colloquial German. At this stage of his adventures he was only about thirty miles from the Dutch frontier, and the previous night had fainted from exhaustion in front of an inn in a small village. He recovered and pressed on, however, before any one saw him, but in passing through the outskirts of Cloppenburg the following morning he was overtaken by a gendarme on a bicycle and at once arrested.

"A lasting friendship grew up between us. Our cells were on the same level on two sides of a corner, and we would frequently whistle to each other, climb up behind the bars of our windows, and hold long surreptitious conversations condoling with each other about our poor empty stomachs, and through the iron bars discuss the details of his escape. I learned much from him of conditions in Berlin and Germany from an escaper's point of view.

"At the end of my five weeks' detention I bade farewell to Kirkpatrick."

- Wallace Ellison -

"They marched us down on to the racecourse for the purpose (roll call), and there sorted us alphabetically - all the A's together, all the B's together, &c. It was a tedious business, lasting for several hours, and only enlivened by the merriment which the sound of some of the names provoked - such names as those of Mr. Kitchener, who was a tailor, and Mr. Edward Grey, of whom I know nothing except that he was not a Secretary of State."

 

"At the head of it (university) was the Science and Arts Union, organised by Mr. Hattfield, a distinguished chemist, with whom were associated, among others, Professor Delmer, whom I have already mentioned, Mr. Klingender, the Curator of the Gosling Museum, and my friend Mr. Prichard - a society to which our own Education Office has been sending a large supply of education books."

 

"Some of our number happily found their sphere of usefulness in helping these men who needed help so badly. In particular, my friend Mr. Stanley Lambert, now the Captain of the Schonungs Baracke, or Barrack for Individulas and Convalescents, did so. Some day, I hope, it will be my privilege to devote a special article to a full record of the work which Mr. Lambert hads been doing at Ruhleben; but it will be better to wait for that until the work is finished. Here and now it will be enough to set down that, for many months, Mr. Lambert has been devoting practically the whole of his time and thoughts to the care and protection of those of the interned who, through illness or weakness of constitution, are least fit to withstand the inevitable hardships of camp life, acting, of course, in collaboration with the camp doctor, but also showing himself capable of energetic initiative, and serving his country in a way which has made his name one to conjure with among those whom he has been looking after. If any reader wants further testimony, let him ask any one of the sailors who have recently been returned to England as invalids unfit for further detention."

"Mr. Lambert (Convalescent Barracks) was particularly loudly cheered on appearing in his turn for presentation - a spontaneous tribute to his untiring work for the sick and aged..."

That not all people of British birth are even yet taboo in Germany may be seen by the continued appointment of Mr. Eugen d'Albert as co-conductor with M. Nikisch at the Berlin Philharmonic Concerts. Mr d' Albert, like Mr. Frederick Lammond, is a native of Glasgow, but although Mr. Lammond was before the war acknowledged in Germany as the greatest of all Beethoven players, his most recent exploits have been at Ruhleben, where he was quickly interned. 

Freddy Lane was probably a  cousin of british Champion Jockey Otto
Madden, son of the famous Kincsem jockey Elijah Madden. He rode "Mon Desir" the German Oaks winner of 1914 for Schlenderhan, and in 1932 a Fred Lane rode "April the fifth" the Derby winner at Epsom.

Henry Laughton died in the mid seventies. After he was released from Ruhleben , he was sent to Canada. He never again got back to Leeds, England to see his relatives.  We have picture frames that my Grandfather craved from wood, with the camp name on them and other things.

The death occurred last Friday at Milverton House, Long Ashton, near Bristol, of Arthur Eckley Lechmere, M.Sc., D.Sc., of Fownhop, hereford, who for over four years was interned at Ruhleben Camp, aged 34. He was studying in Germany at the outbreak of war, and got to the frontier, but was stopped and interned. He worked in salt mines, and in consequence his health suffered. On the signing of the Armistice he was repatriated, and soon afterwards took up an appointment in the research department at the National Cider Institute, Long Ashton, for which he had been qualifying in Germany.

 

 

It appears that one Walter Lewenz, of German origin but born and brought up in England, was interned in Ruhleben in November 1914, but was released because his wife was dangerously ill. His 12 year old daughter had been expelled as an "enemy" from a municipal school in Berlin. 

Although Walter was born in Nottingham, he travelled on business and married Rose Marie Eisenberg from Leipzig. They had Hilda Marianne in 1900 and Edith Alice in 1902, both born in Berlin. Walter applied for British nationality for each of his two daughters soon after they were born as he felt that this was important. Sadly Hilda died of scarlet fever in 1909.

 

The family was traveling in Switzerland when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914. Walter was an optimist. He decided that the event wasn’t significant and he crossed into Germany to visit the family home in Berlin. Although he spoke German, the Germans knew by his accent that he wasn’t a native German. Walter was regarded as an Englishman, he was interned for the duration of the war, and his assets in Germany were seized by the German government. After the war the family returned to Nottingham.

"Best greetings to the old 'Varsity from the following students and ex-students at present resident at Ruhleben - James L. Mounsey; H. J. W. Tillyard, lecturer in Greek; W. J. Crosland Briggs, M.A., 1914; Harold Luck, M.A., 1913; M. F. Liddle, M.A., 1909; J. Halliday, M.A., 1914; James Peebles Conn, Bucher scholar in music, 1902; J. M. Dickson, M.A., BSc., Agric.; R. Herdman Pender, M.A., teacher in George Heriot's School; E. G. Burgoyne, J. Fleming, 1895-97; Robert McNeil, 1905-6; Eric G. Riddell, 1908-9, former students."

In the course of the next week also Mr Lindsay and Mr. George Fergusson will hold an invitation vocal and piano recital on strictly classical lines, the programme will include selections from the works of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven.

Orchestra concerts will be given on every third Sunday, the intervening Sundays being devoted to chamber and vocal and instrumental recitals. The first three Symphony Concerts will be conducted by Messrs. Bainton, Weber and Macmillan, among the works promised being Schumann's Pianoforte Concerto (with Mr. Lindsay as soloist), and Mozart's Symphony in E. flat. Other prospective events include a recital by Messrs. Keel and Lindsay, a chamber concert, arranged by Mr. Short, at which Ed. Schutt's Suite for Violin and Pianoforte and some Two-pianoforte music will be brought forward.   

Mr. Lindsay has figured as soloist in no less than three concertos, and has played with his usual brilliance in each case. 

 

 

Jockey *William* Lister had only one bigger success when he won the Hamburg Handicap in 1908. He did not show a winner in 1914, but held a legitimation card.

"Worshipful Sir & Bro.,

 

We the undersigned brethren, at present interned with other British civilians at the concentration camp at Ruhleben - Spandau, Germany, send hearty good wishes to the Grand Master, officers and brethren in Great Britain, hoping that we may have the pleasure soon of greeting them personally."

 

 

George Long was born in Vienna 27 Nov 1870 and died in Hoppegarten 11 Jun 1948. His grave is the first on the norteastern side of the cemetary. His daughter Hilda Isabella Utting died 1986 in Winchester.
 

Born at Ascot 1863, Joseph became a founding member of the British Professional Golfers Association. He was a golf professional at Royal Ascot from 1888 until 1922.

 

He was a professional at Bad Homburg, which was only a summer and seasonal golf club, from 1903 to 1914. Apparently he was also a professional at Frankfort in 1914.

"... and in addition to the string players mentioned above one thinks of Mr. Godfrey Ludlow (whose ill-health has latterly deprived the camp of one of its most eagerly looked for pleasures)."