Databases and Genealogy: UK: Search for prisoners of war online

You can now search and download First World War interviews and reports for over 3,000 named individuals. These reports have previously been available online, but we have just completed a project to improve access to them by enabling you to search for them by the names of the authors of each report.

These documents, from the series WO 161, were compiled by the Committee on the Treatment of British Prisoners of War and provide the main source of personal information for Prisoners of War (PoWs) captured during the First World War. They consist of pre-Armistice reports made by repatriated, escaped or interned Officers, Medical Officers and Other Ranks, and occasionally Merchant Seamen and Civilians. Unlike many other records, they often describe what happened after the battle. However, it should be noted that they represent a tiny percentage of the estimated 192,000 British and Commonwealth captives.

Source: National Archives, UK

This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 and is filed under Archives and Special Collections, Databases, Directories, and Guides, Digitization Projects, Government Documents and Political Information, Search News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.