Lincolnshire’s County Archives have provided researchers with a ground breaking discovery. The University of Lincoln lecturer Andrew Kerr uncovered a series of unseen cartoons depicting the everyday lives of prisoners of war during WW1. The prisoner – who drew the cartoons – was held in a Lincolnshire prisoner of war camp. Although the camp is well known during its use in WW2, there was no record until now that it even existed during WW1.
The images show how the prisoners lived their daily lives, including digging turrets, carrying meat and playing card games. The pencil and water colour images even show caricatures of the camp’s boss.
The group researching the cartoons have been given a large grant to continue and further their research. One member of the research group and Professor of Communications at the University of Lincoln, Jane Chapman, said: “The cartoons show them labouring in the fields and one scene of them bringing back an enormous side of pork, with captions in German.
“It’s just a magical find.”
The larger research group is running from the University of Hertfordshire and are working in a partnership with the University of Lincoln.
The Forgotten Cartoons of World War One
