Born:
Died:
Buried:
Address: 5 Rosslyn Terrace, Valley Road, Shipley
Parents:
Spouse:
Siblings:
Occupation: fireclay miner
Organisations/clubs:
Military
Rank: Pte
Medals/awards:
Rolls of Honour:
Children:
Regiment: KOYLI
John William Roper
Amongst the English prisoners of
war recently repatriated from
Germany is Pte J W Roper, who
has returned to his home at 5
Rosslyn Terrace, Valley Road,
Shipley.
Before the war he was employed as
a fireclay miner by John R Fyfe &
Co of The Shipley Firebrick Works.
Being a reservist he was called up
to his regiment, the King’s Own
Yorkshire Light Infantry, on the
outbreak of hostilities.
Although he did not see a great
deal of the fighting, he was
engaged in some of the worst, for it
was in the retirement from Mons
that he was taken prisoner, on 26th
August 1914.
He was in the same company as Sgt
Major William Booth, brother of
Mr J J Booth and Mr T A Booth of
Idle), who is still a prisoner of war
in Germany.
In the three years and more of his
captivity he has been interned in
some half-dozen different camps.
He states that after their capture,
the men were sent off in cattle
trucks, fifty or more of the
wounded soldiers being packed in a
truck like sardines.
He was himself fortunately not
wounded but the wounded men, he
says, received no medical attention
until they arrived at the Doebritz
Camp and many were not treated
for their wounds for a day or two
after that.
At that anxious time there appears
to have been a representative of
practically every regiment of the
British Army in the Doebritz Camp.
One of the Hussars men died in the
camp three days after arrival and it
is suggested that his life might have
been saved had he promptly
received proper treatment.
The accommodation at first
consisted mainly of horse tents into
which the prisoners were huddled.
The men were very verminous (our
informant used a different word),
having had no change of clothing
for a considerable time.
From Doebritz Pte Roper was sent
to ‘Hungry Hill’ – an ominous
name. half a loaf of bread, which he
described as being ‘like putty,’ and
some hot coffee, without sugar or
milk, formed the morning ration,
varied by rice or meal; sometimes it
was only coffee and that, being
made of acorns, was very bitter,
with nothing to eat.
Pte Roper says that in 1914 and
1915 the Germans had the food but
they refused to give it to the
prisoners.
Eventually the prisoners were put
on two meals a day, one taken at 6
o’clock in the morning and the
other about 4 o’clock in the
afternoon.
He states that he often saw meat go
into the kitchen but he never saw it
again. His presumption is that, after
making the soup, the meat was
divided between the Russian
prisoners and the Germans
themselves. About 2,000 Russian
prisoners arrived at the end of
October 1914.
Had it not been for the parcels of
food received from England, says
Pte Roper, he and his fellow
prisoners would not have been able
to live.
As it was he suffered seriously,
became very much depressed and
completely lost his health.
“It is up to every working man or
gentleman,” he observed with
much feeling, “to help as much as
possible to raise funds to provide
food for my pals out there who are
prisoners of war.
“I am going to try to do the best I
can for them now that I have got
home.”
Asked what kind of work the
prisoners were put to, Pte Roper
said at first it was mainly the
building of huts for the men to live
in. Afterwards they were put on
road making and tree felling.
The working hours in winter were
from 8 to 4 and I summer from 6 to
7.
For the work inside the camp, no
pay was received but when on land
work, 3d a day was allowed.
The men often objected to the
work, of course, and when they
protested they were punished by
being tied by hands and feet to a
pole for two hours at a stretch.
In September 1915 Pte Roper was
transferred to the camp at Dyrotz
which he describes as the best camp
he was ever in. Since then,
however, they have all improved
and are run on practically the same
lines.
The prisoners are now treated with
less harshness in the camps than
they were in 1914 but outside the
camps the commanders are still
often very severe.
Other places in which our
informant spent some time were the
camp at Cottleus, in Brandenburg,
and the Gordon Hospital in the
same district.
He was ill in hospital for five
months and it was because his
condition was so bad that he was
included amongst the prisoners to
be repatriated.
They first went to Holland, he says,
and were extremely well treated by
the Dutch people during the five
days they remained in that country.
“I do not think our own people
could have done more for us,” he
remarked, “than the Dutch folk
did.”
The journey from Rotterdam to
Boston and thence to Shipley
proved uneventful.
Shipley Times & Express 8-2-1918