Lieutenant Dudley Stewart-Smith’s diaries 1918

Some account of my stay in Germany as a prisoner of war and of the curious people I met there, beginning on April 18^th, the date on which I was captured at Givenchy, when serving with the 1^st Black Watch.

It is said that as soon as a man commits this thoughts, criticisms and actions to paper, he is gravely compromising himself and giving his enemies a handle by which they can ridicule him. There is nothing in these few pages which is not strictly true and though perhaps some of my criticisms may be rather hard, they are at least honest and genuine and though none of us are without our faults, a few men stand out in my memory above all others by reason of their unfailing sympathy & generosity or by their greedy selfishness. As a prisoner of war a man is up against the sternest test, which he will ever be called upon to endure & to my mind it is surprising how few men have been able to stand this test. Shortage of food, discomfort of quarters, bad travelling and general indifference of their captors have caused men of good rank and standing to resort to measures which would formerly have been wholly foreign to them. And yet again extraordinary kindness and unselfishness displayed by others more than made up for the crimes and unhappiness caused by those, whose only consideration was themselves.

I fear not the replies of those I criticize, knowing full well, how careful I have been to record the truth and avoid any exaggeration. My writings are but the outcome of hours of enforced leisure and ennui [boredom] and if they interest the casual reader in any way, the writer will not feel that his hours have been wasted or that his time in Germany has been as unfruitful as he feared it would be.

D. C. Stewart Smith

Read D C Stewart Smith’s Diaries Transcribed By James Stewart Smith