Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Great War ‘escapers’ M.M. group of three awarded to Private J. Land, 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), Canadian Infantry, who was wounded in action at Messines, 20 March 1916, and taken prisoner of war during the attack on Regina Trench, 8 October 1916. A persistent escaper, who was recaptured on multiple occasions, only to finally get away 15 June 1918

Military Medal, G.V.R. (460593 Pte J. Land. 13/Cann Inf [sic]); British War and Victory Medals (460593 Pte. J. Land. 13-Can. Inf) mounted for display, edge bruising overall, therefore nearly very fine (3) £800-£1,200

Dix Noonan Webb, September 2007.

M.M. London Gazette 30 January 1920. ‘... in recognition of gallant conduct and determination displayed in escaping or attempting to escape from captivity...’

John Land was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in December 1890. He served during the Great War with the 13th Battalion, Canadian Infantry on the Western Front. Land was wounded at Messines 20 March 1916, and taken prisoner of war during the attack on Regina Trench, 8 October 1916. Land escaped 15 June 1918, and returned to England 25 July 1918.

Land’s escapers debrief report, the original of which is held at the National Archives, gives the following details:

‘Place and Date of Capture: Courcelette 8th October 1916. About 5 a.m. on 8th October 1916 my battalion was sent up to attack the Regina Trench. We were surrounded and at 9 a.m. I was taken prisoner with six other men of my unit. Shortly after we were taken they marched us to Cambrai, where we arrived about midnight. At Cambrai, where we remained for 10 days only, one meal a day was given to the prisoners. There were about 100 British. The meal consisted of a bowl of very poor soup, and no ration of bread was served. We were lodged in an old French barrack. I have no complaint to make as to our treatment.

On 19th October, I was sent from Cambrai to Dulmen with about 100 British prisoners, and I remained there for about two and a half months before they sent me to work on commando. I have nothing particular to say about my treatment at Dulmen, except that the food was very short indeed, as I received no parcels until I was working on commando.

On 31st December, a party of 30 British prisoners, of whom I was one, was sent from Dulmen to Recklinghausen, where there are large railway works. Here the prisoners – about 100 British, 15 French, and 14 Russians – were lodged in a house adjoining the railway yard. The accommodation was not bad. There were a great number of small rooms, and each room was occupied by three prisoners. The food allowed us was quite uneatable, but we lived on our parcels and had sufficient to eat. There were six guards who looked after the prisoners and we were never allowed to go outside the works.

The prisoners worked with the civilians, and the hours of work were 6.15 a.m. to 6.15 p.m., and they were under the control of the civilian foremen. There was not much ill-treatment so long as the prisoners were willing to work, but if they refused to work or showed slackness, the foremen used considerable violence and knocked us about. In June 1917, on one occasion when I declined to work, pretending I was ill, the foreman, whose name I did not know, attacked me with a pitchfork and wounded me in the hand. I still have the scar.

I escaped from Recklinghausen three times during the fourteen months I was there on commando, but I was always recaptured. The first time that I escaped in December 1917 I was recaptured six days later on the frontier, sentenced to 17 days’ imprisonment, and then set back to Recklinghausen. In January 1918 I escaped again, and it was four days before I was caught. On this occasion they gave me 28 days as I had a flashlight, and then sent me back to the same commando; and on 4th May 1918 I escaped once again, but after five days I was recaptured and given 35 days’ imprisonment because I had two maps. At the expiration of the last sentence I was not sent back to Recklinghausen, but they transferred me to Dortmund.

At Recklinghausen things might have been worse, and from what I heard of other commandos I think that it can be looked upon as a good camp. So long as the prisoners did a reasonable amount of work they were treated properly. The worst case of violence I remember was that of a British prisoner named Smith. I do not know his regiment, but this man was always cursing and abusing the guards, who marked him out one day as we were passing out of the works, set upon him, and beat him very brutally.

There were no visits from the Dutch Legation while I was at Recklinghausen. We were paid 90pfg. a day, but we had no chance of spending mony (sic) except that occasionally at rare intervals we could buy a few cigarettes. It was on 10th June that I was sent to Dortmund with six other British prisoners. I was there only five days, so there was little opportunity for me to obtain information about this commando. The prisoners worked in a large zinc factory. There were about 200 Russians and Frenchmen, and only about seven British. We were lodged in an old storehouse, and we all slept together on wooden stretcherbeds. The accommodation was very bad, and the general conditions also; the place was extremely dirty.

I do not know the name of the firm to whom the zinc works belonged. Our hours of work were much longer than at Recklinghausen. The jobs given prisoners were mostly unhealthy, as the fumes from the furnaces were sometimes almost overpowering. For the first two days that I was on this commando I declined to work, and nothing was done to me beyond being abused by the foreman. The prisoners were employed principally in drawing furnaces and carrying coal, and they worked in shifts. The storehouse in which we were lodged was situated in the centre of the works, and we were never far away from the fumes emitted by the furnaces. I should say that this commando was a bad one, but the shortness of my stay there afforded me no opportunity to give detailed information. On 15th June, at 2 a.m. I managed to escape in company with one of the French prisoners.’