“We are the boys of hardship” – Scrapbook of a POW captured at the Somme

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Battle of the Somme is the sheer enormity of the numbers
wounded or killed. Fifty thousand British troops were wounded or gave their lives on the first day
alone, and over the course of next five months that number would rise to around 400,000.

Less well known, however, are those who fought at the Somme but were captured by the enemy. Of
these, those who left records of their imprisonment provide a fascinating window into the lives of
Prisoners of War. One such example is held by the Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre: the
scrapbook of Pvt John William McGrath.

Figure 1: McGrath's scrapbook

McGrath served in B Company of the 18th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, and was captured
outside the town of Guillemont on the 30th July. He records that he was captured along with about
50 of his comrades, as well as two officers, before being taken away for imprisonment.
 Figure 2: McGrath recalls his capture

McGrath’s scrapbook is patchy, and lacks the detail and organisation we might expect of say, a diary,
but nonetheless it provides and insight into both the treatment of POWs, and possibly even his
frame of mind during his period of incarceration.

Above all, his scrap-book complains about the lack of food given to prisoners. Recalling the
Christmas of 1916 for instance, he notes that he and his comrades had almost nothing to eat:

Figure 3: McGrath recalls Christmas 1916

In another entry in the scrapbook, McGrath, (or one of his fellow prisoners), made further
commentary on the food situation in the form of a poem, saying:

Figure 4: Pvt McGrath's Poem

Despite the tough situation in terms of food, McGrath and the other soldiers seemed to have
enjoyed a degree of home comforts. In particular, they seemed to have been able to send and
receive letters from home, as this (sadly torn) letter illustrates.

[picture of letter]
In addition, they even seemed to have been able to receive packages, with the scrapbook making
references to parcels:

Figure 5: Parcels received by McGrath

McGrath also seems to have made a note of the addresses of his fellow prisoners of war, perhaps to
send letters or to stay in touch if and when they returned home:

[pictures of addresses]

It seems to have been a long wait, however, as this note in the scrapbook suggests McGrath
remained a German prisoner right up to the end of the war.

[picture of reference to 1918]

Sadly no further notes are written in the scrapbook which provide evidence of McGrath’s activities
following the war. Unfortunate though that is, the record he has left us provides a valuable insight
into the experiences of some of those captured at the Somme, and other battles of the First World
War.

This blog post was researched and written by Isaac Boothroyd, a volunteer at the Manchester Central
Library’s Archives+ scheme.

References & Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the staff of the Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre for their help with
accessing the resources used in this post, as well as draw attention to the following sources used
within it:

1) MR4/17/322/2 – Notebook of Pvt John William McGrath.