Page 128 - WW1 - 1918

Remembering Redditch Residents & WW1 Redditch Local History Society

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Evening Despatch – Thursday 12 December 1918

Hunger and Neglect – Redditch Soldier’s Death While in Captivity – How a young
Redditch soldier suffered and died whilst a prisoner in German hands is related in letters
received from comrades who were with him in captivity.

The soldier was Private J. W. Chambers, whose parents live at 27 Prospect Road, Redditch.
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“The funeral was out of the ordinary,” writes Sergeant G. c. Banks, 5 D.L.I., “beng attended
by four French sergeants, four Arabs sergeants, two British sergeants, and 24 privates. At
the time the man was taken ill he was sleeping in a barn with 5 more of us, together with
horses and pigs.

He died on 7 August, and was buried with much respect at the village of Rocoigny, Ardennes,
on 9 August. We were photographed by the Germans as we took him to the place of rest.
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(On Ancestry site Military records, John William Chambers, 25135, 1 Battalion,
Worcestershire Regiment, born in Studley, resided in Redditch, enlisted in Stourbridge, died,
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7 August 1918, Western European Theatre. Buried Rocquigny Communal Cemetery,
France.)
Remembered on St Stephen’s war memorial, Redditch and on St George’s war memorial there is a Jack
Chambers remembered but not able to find anything out about him but it could have been John William
Chambers who might have been known as Jack.
(On the 1911 census John, aged 13, Printing, lived with his parents Harry and Jane Chambers, Green Lane,
Studley.)

Page: 128 © RLHS 2014