What happened when the train reached the village?

Three miles from Château-d’Œx the first husbands boarded the train: “There were over 30 people in a carriage meant for 12, and the guard who was attempting to collect the tickets gave it up as hopeless.” As the train ran into the station one of the wives, a munition worker who “has been invaluable all along and kept up the spirits of all”, was singing “Tipperary”, “and the crowd took up the refrain.”

How many couples were then in the village?

The two parties together made 30 couples in the village. Three hours after the arrival, the correspondent wrote, “in groups of two, the reunited couples are walking through the pine woods”, and one couple he visited “had already settled down to domesticity in a small chalet”.

Cheerful Wives at Château d'Œx

Q: How did the second party of wives arrive at Château-d’Œx?

The Times correspondent, writing from Château-d’Œx on 9 October 1916, reported that a second party of soldiers’ wives arrived that evening: “They had had no delays on the journey, so that they were more cheerful and less tired.” As the electric railway train climbed from Montreux they sang “Keep the Home Fires Burning” and “Tipperary”, “much to the amusement of the other passengers”.

The Times, 10 October 1916 (dateline “CHATEAU D’ŒX, Oct. 9”). 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 a cutting made available by The Times Archive.

In this report: the second party of wives reaching Château-d’Œx without delay on the journey, making 30 couples then in the village, and the foyer des soldats where they gathered.

← All archive documents

Headline as printed: CHEERFUL WIVES AT CHÂTEAU D’ŒX.

ARRIVAL OF SECOND PARTY.

Handwritten annotation

“The Times - 10/10/1916”

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

CHATEAU D’ŒX, Oct. 9.

A second party of soldiers’ wives arrived this evening. They had had no delays on the journey, so that they were more cheerful and less tired. As the electric railway train climbed from Montreux to Chateau d’ŒX, they sang “Keep the Home Fires Burning,” and “Tipperary,” much to the amusement of the other passengers. A Gurkha Subadar at one of the stations passed gazed appreciatively at the party, and bewailed his fate that his wife was in the hills of Nepal and not in Switzerland. Three miles from Chateau d’ŒX, the first husbands boarded the train. There were over 30 people in a carriage meant for 12, and the guard who was attempting to collect the tickets gave it up as hopeless. It could not be anything but a duplicate of the first scene when the other party arrived. One of the wives is a munition worker and has been invaluable all along and kept up the spirits of all. As the train ran into Château d’ŒX Station she was singing “Tipperary,”

d’ŒX Station she was singing “Tipperary,” and the crowd took up the refrain. As the party detrained, unconcerned at the oyes of the crowd, the wives made their greetings openly and lengthily. Even those who had been tired a few moments before forgot their fatigue, and now, three hours after, in groups of two, the reunited couples are walking through the pine woods. One couple I visited had already settled down to domesticity in a small chalet and were washing up the tea things—a slow process, for the husband was more disposed to talk than to work.

The Swiss are as kind as ever and are entertaining the men and their wives at a foyer des soldats. Visiting is the order of the day, and the earlier arrivals are explaining life in the valley to the newcomers. All soldier couples are welcomed at any chalets by farmers, whose hospitality is that of all people who live in highlands.

There are now 30 happy couples here, but, as a Swiss said to me, “they have made us happier too to think that we can do even so little for men broken in war. We should like to have them always here, and we should like all the prisoners that are in Germany to come also”—a sentiment very generally echoed in the country.

The Red Cross escort got a great testimonial from the wives, saying that their indefatigable care for their welfare and general kindness made the journey smooth and a pleasure.

Facsimile of the original cutting: Cheerful Wives at Château d'Œx, The Times, 10 October 1916 (dateline — **Facsimile** — *The Times*, 10 October 1916 (dateline "CHATEAU D'ŒX, Oct. 9"), page 7. Scanned by the News UK Archive & Record Office and supplied to St Peter's in April 2016. Reproduced with acknowledgement to Times Newspapers Limited. Open the full-size scan.

End of the transcribed document

Notes by St Peter's — not part of the document above

St Peter’s and the 1916 internment

The Château-d’Œx chaplaincy was placed on the Colonial and Continental Church Society’s list in 1866, and for the thirty-three years before St Peter’s was built the English congregation had no building of its own. Served by seasonal chaplains, it met in the village’s Protestant church — the Temple, up on the hill — and, when the climb or the snow made that impractical, in the lounge of the Hôtel Berthod, the Pension Morier and the Salle des Catéchumènes. The season was a summer one — June to September, before winter sports drew visitors to the valley. The church was built in 1899, on land given by the Berthod brothers and with a loan from the Society; it was consecrated on 27 May 1902 by Thomas Edward Wilkinson, Anglican Bishop of North Europe, and enlarged in 1911, by which time the chaplain could no longer seat everyone who came.

From 1916 neutral Switzerland took in wounded and invalid prisoners of war from both sides — French, Belgian, German and British — released from enemy camps under agreements between their governments. Château-d’Œx received the British. The first train reached Montreux on 30 May 1916 carrying 304 men, including 32 officers. The chaplain, the Revd E. Dudley Lampen — the parish’s first permanent chaplain, in post since 1908, and assisted during the war by the Revd Isaac Hutchinson — later described the whole episode as “the sojourn of 750 British soldiers in this valley”.

St Peter’s was their parish church. They filled it for services, and one of the internees, a professional organist in England before the war, played the church’s American harmonium. In August 1916 Lampen wrote to The Times asking readers to fund a proper organ — “a permanent memorial of the historic sojourn of our British officers and men in this valley”. The fund’s treasurer was Colonel E. Vansittart of the Royal West Kent Regiment, himself one of the officers who had arrived on that first train. The organ was dedicated on 8 March 1917: a Goll of 1916, opus 462, and the organ still played in the church today.

These First World War reports were traced for the centenary of the internment, which Château-d’Œx marked on Sunday 29 and Monday 30 May 2016 — a hundred years to the day after the first train. The complete archive → · The fuller account of 1916 →

About this transcription

Source: The Times, 10 October 1916 (dateline “CHATEAU D’ŒX, Oct. 9”)
Archive item: cheerful-wives-chateau-doex (2 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.

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

(None — unsigned article with dateline CHATEAU D’ŒX, Oct. 9.)

Uncertain readings

“Subadar at one of the stations passed gazed” — “passed” appears in the text but the syntax is awkward; it may be “passed” or possibly a transcription error in the original printing (considered: “Subadar at one of the stations, passed,”). Transcribed as printed.
“oyes of the crowd” — unusual spelling; possibly intended as “eyes” but transcribed as printed: “oyes” (confirmed by both reading passes).
Page break occurs mid-sentence at “Tipperary,” — both pages continue seamlessly.
“foyer des soldats” — printed in italics in original; transcribed with markdown italics notation.

Cheerful Wives at Château d'Œx — The Times, 10 October 1916 (dateline "CHATEAU D'ŒX, Oct. 9")

ARRIVAL OF SECOND PARTY.

Handwritten annotation

Questions answered