Soldiers at Château d'Oex

The Times, 17 August 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 in full from the original cutting held in St Peter’s Anglican Church press archive, Château-d’Œx.

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Headline as printed: SOLDIERS AT CHÂTEAU D’OEX.

Handwritten annotation

The Times 17 August 1916

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—The mountain village of Château d’Oex in Switzerland is now crowded with British soldiers interned for the remainder of the war and until peace is signed. We have at present in Château d’Oex some [?]00 soldiers, and we are expecting a contingent of another 200 men this month. We shall thus have [?]00 in this little town and neighbourhood. The dangers through which each man has passed in the firing line, the ill-treatment that all without exception have met with in German camps, have served to impress their minds with a sense of thankfulness to God for their deliverance, and to quicken their religious instincts. This is shown in an appreciation of the Church services. The soldiers, especially when a hymn is chosen that they like, sing with all their hearts. They enter into the beautiful liturgy of our Church with a heartiness which is refreshing to hear. We need, however, an organ to give greater support to the singing. Our American harmonium, excellently played by one of our soldiers who was a professional organist in England, is not sufficiently powerful to lead the musical portions of the service. We have £40 in hand, but need a further sum of £300 in order to procure a small, but efficient, instrument. This organ would be a permanent memorial of the historic sojourn of our British officers and men in this valley of Switzerland. I feel sure that there are many relatives and friends of the British, interned prisoners of war who would esteem it a privilege to contribute towards placing such a memorial in the English Church of Château d’Oex. Cheques, crossed “Château d’Oex Church Organ Fund, Cuénod’s Bank, Montreux,” may be sent to Colonel Vansittart, Chalet Benvenuta, Château d’Oex, Switzerland, who has kindly consented to act as treasurer of the fund.

About this transcription

Source: The Times, 17 August 1916
Date taken from: the date written on the cutting itself
Archive item: letter-to-times-lampen-organ-subscription (1 image)
Transcription: Machine-transcribed in two independent passes, with a further check on disputed readings.
Status: Verified before publication — two independent transcriptions were compared, and any reading still in doubt is left unresolved and noted below rather than settled.

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

Signature and date as printed

E. DUDLEY LAMPEN, British Chaplain. Château d’Oex, August.

Uncertain readings

🔴 The two troop figures are NOT recoverable from this scan. The left edge of the column is cut off, so the leading digit of “[?]00 soldiers” and of “[?]00 in this little town” is physically absent from the image. Three separate transcription passes each produced a different confident answer — one read 100 and 300, another 400 and 600 — and a check on a 9× upscaled crop established that neither digit is on the page at all. Only the middle figure, “another 200 men this month”, is fully visible and certain. Do not cite the first or third figure without a better scan or another copy of the issue.

📊 What the surrounding record implies. The Times of 13 June 1916 reports “the 450 odd now lodged” at Château d’Œx, and the Greater Britain Messenger of July 1916 gives “a total of 357 men and thirty officers” arriving on 30–31 May. Against that, a reading of “some 400 soldiers … another 200 … thus have 600” is coherent, and “100 … 300” is not — there were already far more than 100 men in the valley by August. This is corroboration, not a reading: the digits remain absent from the scan and should be presented as unresolved.

“E. Dudley Lampen” — adjudicated. A first pass read “F.”; the letterform carries a bottom crossbar. Independently confirmed by his byline in the Greater Britain Messenger, July 1916: “By the Rev. E. Dudley Lampen, C.C.C.S. Chaplain.”
“Chalet Benvenuta” — adjudicated at zoom; an earlier pass read “Convenuta”.
“Cuénod’s Bank, Montreux” — an earlier pass rendered the town as “Mont-eux” (a line-break hyphen mistaken for part of the word).
“dangers through which each man has passed” — an earlier pass read “langours”/”languours”; the upscaled crop shows “dangers”, with the leading “d” clipped by the same left-edge crop.
Monetary sums £40 in hand and £300 needed are mid-line, fully visible, and certain.