Not only have the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) released on-line many of their First World War period records covering prisoners of war, but also the Royal Air Force Museum have digitised their collection of 'casualty cards' (and related records) for the same conflict. Here is an example of how these two sets of records can work together. The release of these records is an exciting development, making it much easier to research individual servicemen - in this context, particularly prisoners of war and internees - from the comfort of your own home. For this example I am using the case of Lieutenant William Reid of the Royal Flying Corps, who was the first victim of the German air ace Max Immelman.

Nick Bawden has kindly sent me copies of some interesting photographic postcards from his collection. Fortunately the postcards all have handwritten captions on the backs, which provide some useful information - although the writing took some deciphering! 

(Photographs courtesy of Nick Bawden.)

The image on the left shows an oil painting made by a British former prisoner of war (PoW) who was interned at Mürren in Switzerland. It was kindly sent to me by James Gordon-Cumming. You can see James' interesting website on trench art here: www.trenchart.co.uk. 

James bought the painting at auction about five years ago, and little is known about its prior history. However it does have some writting and a paper label on the back, stating that it was painted by  Private A. Price (or Prise?) who was interned at Mürren, Switzerland.