Mexborough and Swinton Times November 30, 1918
Another Mexborough man home from Germany
Bugler W Lockett, K.O.Y.L.I. of Swinton Road, Mexborough, was one of the batch of prisoners repatriated from Germany last week.
Bugler Lockett was serving at the outbreak of the war with the second Battalion K.O.Y. L.I., and proceeded to France on 30 August 1914.
During the memorable Retreat from Mons he was hit by shrapnel in the back, and was captured by the advancing Germans. For three days he lay unattended in the field.
Numerous German stretcher parties refused him assistance, and towards the end of the third day he was conveyed to a field ambulance. The only food he received was surreptitiously conveyed to him by French people stop after five days of rough treatment he was removed to hospital at Crefeld, where conditions greatly improve. For three months he received every attention, and at the end of that time he was transferred to the famous internment camp at Sennelager.
Food here was of the barest and scantiest description. With a menu of coffee and black bread for breakfast, turnip water for dinner, and potato soup for tea, the men lived in a state of semi-starvation. The working day for the prisoners consisted of 16 hours. This
On one occasion Lockett, misunderstanding and order given to him by one of the German sentence, was at the command of a German officer struck in the mouth with the butt of a rifle, three of his teeth being knocked out. At Dulmen, while working in the timber yard there Lockett witnessed numerous instances of cruelty on the part of the German guards. He saw two British prisoners benefited for trivial offences.
The Germans took the news of the Armistice very solemnly, but grudgingly allowed the prisoners to cease work. There was a great rejoicing months in turn at Dulmen when it became known the Armistice conditions insisted on the release of Allied prisoners.
On the homeward journey through holiday were enthusiastic cheered by the Dutch, though that reception faded into insignificance beside the one that awaited them on their arrival at Hull, where huge crowd had gathered to cheer them.