The Scottish War Memorials Project

DerekR · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:48 pm Post subject: Stobs Prisoner of War Memorial

OS map ref: NT505095
The camp cemetery is still shown clearly on the map.

Stobs camp, 5 miles south of Hawick on the B6357 was also used as a Prisoner of War camp.
By the end of the Great War, a specially consecrated cemetery on the edge of the camp provided the final resting place for the bodies of 35 soldiers, 4 sailors and 6 interned German civilians who had died at the camp from a variety of causes.
The cemetery's central cairn was erected by the prisoners who had held a competition for the most appropriate design, funding for the project coming from a performance of Strauss and Offenbach by the camp orchestra on Easter Monday, 1917.

The monument was erected on a concrete base which was raised slightly from the surrounding graves and was reached by six stone steps. It was a simple construction standing over two metres high with a granite insert inscribed with the words
'To our comrades who died far from home.'
Flowers, saplings and young fir trees were planted around the area and the final touches were made with the positioning of two stone benches beside the cairn.

In 1962, after the closure of the camp, all the bodies were removed to the German Military Cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

Tha fate of the memorial and all the gravestones is unrecorded.
Now, all is left is the stones from the memorial cairn and the step leading up to it.
In spring, when the daffodils are blooming, the location of the graves are highlighted.

Plaes see my website for further details of Stobs Military Camp

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There must be a place under the sun where hearts of olden glory grow young .....

jamiemcginlay · Posted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:56 pm Post subject:

What a shame, surely they should have been left in peace were they lay.

DerekR · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:

Cannock Chase:

And some of the original Stobs fatalities:

Doctor Walter Gellhorn was found dead in a hospital room, morphine poisoning being stated to be the cause of death. Circumstances pointed to it being a deliberate case of suicide.

On the 19th September, 1915, Karl Klein was found dead in the prisoner's hospital having hanged himself with his leather belt which he had attached to one of the windows. He had been one of the men captured from the Blucher. Klein was 26 years of age and married.

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There must be a place under the sun where hearts of olden glory grow young .....

DerekR · Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:55 pm Post subject:

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There must be a place under the sun where hearts of olden glory grow young .....