The Times, 31 May 1916. One of St Peter’s First World War documents, from the years when British prisoners of war were interned at Château-d’Œx, 1916–17. Transcribed from the original cutting held in St Peter’s Anglican Church press archive, Château-d’Œx.

Headline as printed: Captives from Germany British Arrivals in Switzerland · Great Welcome to Our Invalids

The Times, 31 May 1916. From Our Special Correspondent.

In accordance with the arrangement come to by the British and German Governments the first batch of British wounded and invalid captives from Germany arrived in Switzerland yesterday. Their triumphal progress and kindly reception by the Swiss are described in the dispatch from our Special Correspondent, which we print below.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

BERNE, MAY 30, 1 A.M.

The first train bringing the eagerly-awaited British prisoners from Constance, 304 all told, including 32 officers, has just left Zurich, where it made its first prolonged halt on Swiss soil […]

When we reach Berne we shall have travelled about five hours through German-speaking Switzerland, but, judging from the reception of our men so far, there is no danger of their not understanding that they are very much among friends. From the moment of crossing the frontier the enthusiasm of the welcome all along the route has been wonderful. In the east of Switzerland the Allies may claim to have won a bloodless victory, so complete is the change in the general feeling since the war began. The reception means something more than mere pity for brave fighters, men struck down by the fortune of war. Switzerland understands and knows now much that it did not 18 months ago. The strongest sympathy exists for us as well as for the French, and the demand for tickets of admission to the station platform at Zurich this evening was unexampled.

Even before giving the names of the officers released I feel it my duty in the name of England to thank the whole of Switzerland for this latest proof of their kindness to their neighbours. The Government, the military authorities, and Swiss reception committees of Zurich, Château d’Oex, and elsewhere have worked with untiring energy to secure the release of our men and to make them feel at home on arrival, and their official action has been splendidly supported by spontaneous outbursts of personal kindness on the part of the people. There is not the slightest doubt that the same welcome awaits the Russian prisoners, who I have just heard will arrive at the end of June.

When the train arrived at Zurich the platform was crowded with members of the British colony, and the Consulate-General, headed by Sir Cecil Hertslet and many prominent Swiss. Colonel Picot, appointed by the War Office as official parrain of all the British prisoners in Switzerland, was waiting to receive our men and make the journey with them to Château d’Oex. During the half-hour’s halt the officers were allowed on the platform. All were astonished, delighted, and much touched by the wonderful heartiness of the welcome they received everywhere en route as soon as they entered Switzerland, and several officers spoke to me with high appreciation of the courtesy shown them by Prince Max of Baden at Constance.

The following are the names and regiments of the officers who were with the party:—

Officers of the party

Officer	Regiment / corps
Col. E. Vansittart	Royal West Kent
Col. Maxwell Earle	Grenadier Guards
Lieut.-Col. O. D. Christopher	A.S.C.
Maj. the Hon. R. B. F. Robertson	21st Lancers
Maj. R. A. Birley	R.F.A.
Maj. Ronald Meiklejohn	R. Warwickshires
Capt. T. B. Butt	K.O.Y.L.I.
Capt. Ian Henderson	London Scottish
Capt. Thomas Blackburn	K.O.S.B.
Capt. Cecil Morley	Manchester Regt.
Capt. Arthur Hargreaves	Somerset L.I.
Capt. Charles Darley	R.F.C.
Capt. E. D. Hanly	R. Inniskillings
Capt. Greville Irwin	S. Lancashire Regt.
Capt. C. E. Joliffe	Cheshire Regt.
Capt. J. Herbert Master	R.W. Surrey
Capt. Donald Baird-Douglas	Royal Lancasters
Capt. David Hill	R.F.A.
Capt. Robert Alexander	3rd Gurkhas
Capt. Ernest Orford	Suffolk Regt.
Lieut. William Reid	R.F.C.
Lieut. Harold Henderson	Duke of Wellington’s Regt.
Lieut. Elliot Leybourne	D.L.I.
Lieut. D. C. W. Sanders	R.F.A.
Lieut. Henry le Grand	Intelligence Corps
Lieut. Humphrey Goode	R.F.C.
Lieut. Charles Turner	Connaught Rangers
Lieut. J. W. Reynolds	8th Lincolns
Lieut. Theodore Dodson	R.N.V.R. (London)
Lieut. Kenneth Dennys	Somerset L.I.
Subadar Pirthi Sing Rana	4th Gurkhas
Jemadar Naiu Sing Gurung	4th Gurkhas

The list is complete: 32 officers, matching the “32 officers” stated in the report.

An earlier pass recorded a possible 33rd name cut off at the head of the right-hand column (“… s, Royal Lancasters”). That was not a separate officer: the two-column list begins at the foot of p2 with “Col. E. Vansittart, Royal | Capt. Donald Baird-Doug-” and continues at the head of p3 with “West Kent | las, Royal Lancasters”. The fragment is the tail of Baird-Douglas’s own name, split across the page break. Confirmed on a 5× upscaled crop, and by the count.

The two Indian officers will go to Leysin; all the rest to Château d’Oex.

From Berne to Montreux

A Triumphal Progress

MONTREUX, MAY 30, 7 A.M.

We reached Berne at 1 o’clock in the morning, and the reception there and at Friburg, Lausanne, and Montreux was overwhelming.

During the two hours’ stay at Berne all the officers and men detrained and were entertained at the first of several breakfasts by the Swiss. The very large crowd on the platform included Colonel Hauser, Médecin en Chef of the Swiss Army, and many other officers in uniform. At Fribourg, which was passed at 3.30 a.m., another large crowd was wonderfully enthusiastic.

At Lausanne certainly 10,000 people were in the station at 5 in the morning. The scene was indescribably moving, and none felt it more than our officers and men. “We never expected anything like this,” they kept saying, “It’s marvellous,” “It’s incredible,” “It’s top hole,” “Do thank the Swiss for us,” “You can’t say too much.” And I cannot.

Long before we reached Montreux every compartment was overflowing with flowers, cigarettes, flags, chocolates, newspapers, magazines, presents of every kind. On every platform was a mass of cheering people waving flags, handkerchiefs, and hats, and crying “Vive l’Angleterre!” and answered by our men with British hurrahs and handshakes and shouts of “Vive la Suisse!”—that is, when they were not drinking coffee brought into the train by Red Cross ladies.

At Montreux, where several French prisoners and men joined in the greeting, our men were welcomed by a band with the Swiss National Anthem and our own National Anthem, and afterwards “Tipperary” and the Marseillaise, all moving tunes for the British, but never more so than this morning. A sit-down breakfast was given here by the Swiss inhabitants on the terrace front of the Suisse Hotel overlooking the lake, and speeches were made by the Syndic of Montreux, Colonel Picot, and the British Vice-Consul.

As our men walked or limped or were carried one by one down the long flight of steps from the station to the hotel, their caps and tunics covered with flags and flowers, it was a wonderful sight, while the large crowd cheered every man. Our Tommies looked dazed and bewildered, and, most curious of all, shy. “We feel like children,” one of them said to me. “After our time in Germany we can’t understand it at all.” But what they did understand was that they were being treated like old friends.

“Bonne chance, prompte guérison et toute notre admiration” was written on one of the post-cards thrown into the train addressed “Aux défenseurs du droit et de la […]

About this transcription

Source: The Times, 31 May 1916
Archive item: captives-from-germany (4 images)
Transcription: Machine-transcribed in two independent passes.
Status: Verified before publication — two independent transcriptions were compared, and any reading still in doubt is left unresolved and noted below rather than settled.
⚠️ This transcription is not yet complete. 2 passage(s) are marked […] where text has not yet been transcribed. Everything shown is verbatim; the gaps are gaps, not summaries.

Transcribed verbatim, preserving the spelling, punctuation and capitalisation of the original. Square brackets mark a reading that is uncertain or a passage cut off by the edge of the scan. Where the text of a figure or a name could not be established, it is shown as unresolved rather than guessed.

Editorial notes

Uncertain readings

📌 “And I cannot.” is the whole sentence — an earlier pass marked it as truncated in error. The line falls at the very foot of p3 and is clipped again at the head of p4, so it looked cut off from both sides. At 10× the p3 crop is unambiguous: “And I cannot.” carries a full stop and is followed by blank space to the column’s right margin, and p4 resumes with a new indented paragraph. The correspondent is answering the soldiers’ “You can’t say too much” — neither can he. Nothing is missing, and the elision mark has been removed.

🔴 Two passages remain unrecovered, and neither is on the scans at all. These are gaps in the photography, not readings we can sharpen: no amount of magnification will help, and a better scan or another copy of the issue is the only route to them.

Between p1 and p2. p1 stops mid-sentence at “…prolonged halt on Swiss soil”, with blank paper below. p2 opens with a single line clipped so severely that only sub-baseline fragments survive — enough to see it ends in a full stop, not enough to read a word — and then begins a new paragraph, “When we reach Berne…”. How much text sits between the two is unknown.
At the end of p4. The article breaks off mid-phrase at “Aux défenseurs du droit et de la”, with blank paper below. The postcard’s inscription is not completed on this cutting.

The officer list

Independently re-read at 3× (2026-07-28) and confirmed in every particular:

The list totals 32, sixteen in each column, matching the “including 32 officers” stated at the head of the report. The count is a checksum, and it balances.
“… s, Royal Lancasters” is not a 33rd officer. The two-column list begins at the foot of p2 — “Col. E. Vansittart, Royal | Capt. Donald Baird-Doug-” — and resumes at the head of p3 with “West Kent | las, Royal Lancasters”. The fragment is the tail of Baird-Douglas’s own name, split across the page break, and the tail of Vansittart’s regiment beside it.
“Lieut.-Col. O. D. Christopher” — the initial is O, a fully closed ring, not C.
“Friburg” and “Fribourg” both appear, three lines apart, and both are preserved as printed: “the reception there and at Friburg, Lausanne, and Montreux” against “At Fribourg, which was passed at 3.30 a.m.” The inconsistency is the newspaper’s own.