Outdoors informal portrait of Gilbert Graham (centre) and two other civilian prisoners of war ...

Outdoors informal portrait of Gilbert Graham (centre) and two other civilian prisoners of war (POW), Berlin, 1915. Gilbert Graham was a civilian POW held in the Ruhleben Civilian Prisoner of War Camp in Germany from 1914 until his invalid exchange in 1918. Graham who was born in Sydney in 1886 attended Melbourne Grammer School and then two years at Melbourne University studying electrical engineering. During his apprenticeship with an English company he also worked for Accumulatoren-Fabrik in Berlin. In May 1914 he was offered a training position with Accumulatoren-Fabrik in Berlin to train their engineers. Graham and his wife travelled to Germany, a trip which had been paid for by the company. Shortly after his arrival in Berlin on he was arrested and taken on 5 August 1914 to Ruhleben POW camp where he realised that he was among other similar highly qualified engineers and technicians who had also been brought to Germany under false pretences. With the aid of the American Embassy, Mrs Graham was able to travel to England and safety in June 1915, where she lived until the end of the war. Graham was finally released on invalid exchange to Holland in mid 1918. From his base in Holland he then worked for British Intelligence until the end of the war. He returned with his wife to Sydney in 1919.