WWI prisoner of war postcard found

The postcard was sent from Limburg an der Lahn in Germany on 30 April 1918

A postcard sent home by a captured WWI soldier has come to light 95 years after it was sent from a German prisoner of war camp.

Charles Jeffries sent the card from Limburg an der Lahn on 30 April, 1918 to let his family in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, know he had been taken prisoner.

His granddaughter, Pat Nicholls, 78, of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, had the card in a file of family memorabilia.

She is trying to find out more about the role he played in the conflict.

The card gives Mr Jeffries' regiment as the Royal Naval Division but does not indicate whether he was wounded.

It has been stamped in German and Mr Jeffries - born in 1890 - wrote his personal details and home address in pencil.

Pat Nicholls has had the postcard in a file of family memorabilia

The card, which Mrs Nicholls has handed over to historians in Shepreth, is printed in a mixture of German and English and headed "I am a prisoner of war in Germany."

'Not talked about'

Mrs Nicholls said she was a teenager when Mr Jeffries died of lung cancer in 1953.

"I remember him well. I wish I'd asked him about the war. But people didn't talk about it," she said.

"He was a waterworks inspector and worked for the Southend Waterworks Company.

"I know that when he was taken prisoner the shock paralysed my grandmother, Mabel.

"I've checked the handwriting on the card. It's definitely his."