Memorial to British POWs at Altdam

Description

Joseph Morgans, born on 23 July 1891 at Tylagwyn in the Garw valley, served with the Devonshire Regiment and the Gloucester Regiment in WW1. He was shot on 2nd December 1917 at La Vaquerie, during the Battle of Cambrai, wounded in his right knee and captured by the Germans on 3rd December. Joseph was sent to a POW camp at Altdam, Stettin, (a camp affiliated to the German battalion which captured him), and sent home a postcard on 29 December 1917 stating he was still alive. Conditions at the camp were poor, neither guards nor POWs receiving sufficient food. The camp held 18,500 Russian prisoners, and only 55 British POWs. At the end of the war, the gates of the camp were opened, and prisoners told to fend for themselves. Joseph walked to Denmark, where he and others received a rapturous welcome. He sailed to Leith on 14 December 1918, and then went to a POW Reception Camp at Ripon. He was de-briefed there and made it home to join his family for Christmas in 1918. Joseph brought home this picture of the British War Memorial at the camp cemetery - engraved with the names of 46 British soldiers who died at Altdam.

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