The Prisoner of War Department

The Prisoner of War Department of the Australian Red Cross Society was established in July 1916 after Australians were taken prisoner by the Germans on the Western Front. Until this time, the Australians who were taken prisoner by the Turks in 1915 and early 1916 received no official assistance, with their care being left to their friends. They relied on privately sent parcels, and these continued to be sent until December 1916, when it was decided to control the amount of food and clothing entering Germany and Turkey. From this time the Prisoner of War Department, with Miss Mary Elizabeth Chomley as Secretary, took exclusive charge of prisoners from the Australian forces.
The Department based its organisation system upon that used by the Canadian Red Cross. The Department recorded the names of Australian prisoners from the lists issued by the German Red Cross, the Turkish Red Crescent, AIF records, and other sources. The Department acted as an intermediary for relatives and friends and provided comforts for prisoners in camps in Germany, Turkey and Holland.

The basis of this comfort was the issuing of Red Cross parcels consisting either of food, clothing, or special requests or orders where possible. The Department in certain cases also administered the distribution of monies or supplies from general donations in Australia and also administered specific donor/prisoner agreements.
The amount of food that could be sent to prisoners was 27 kilograms for privates and non commissioned officers, 36 kilograms for Australian civilian internees (who came under the Australian Red Cross control in 1918) and 45 kilograms for officers per month. The percentage of received and acknowledged parcels to prisoners overall was 80%, although the rate of receipt was lower in Turkey where parcels would be delayed for long periods, or not arrive at all. The food issued by their captors was often low in quantity or quality so prisoners were highly reliant on their parcels for survival.

The contents of the parcels varied frequently and two thirds of the food stuffs came from Australia and were of a high quality. There were some restrictions on contents - toothpaste in tubes was not allowed as they could contain maps. Pepper was sometimes forbidden as an escapee could use it to deter bloodhounds on his trail. In Turkey, supplies in paper bags would break through rough handling in transit and the contents would scatter throughout the parcel.

The Red Cross also sent clothing parcels to the prisoners. Items, such as underwear, vests, trousers, shirts, coats and boots were sent to prisoners. When a prisoner's name was received by the Red Cross, they would contact the Australian Imperial Force Headquarters for the prisoner's size information. Appropriate parcels were then sent to the prisoner. However as with the food parcels, parcels sent to Turkey were often delayed or not received and many prisoners had to rely on clothes donated by neutral embassies.

Ill or wounded prisoners' names were referred to another organisation, the Invalid Comforts Fund, who sent special parcels with medicines and approved basic medical equipment. The Invalid Comforts Fund also sent regular supplies of simple medicines to camps which could be administered without a doctor's advice, and other first aid items. Many of the ill men could not digest tinned food, so special invalid food parcels were supplied to them by the Australian Red Cross.

In 1919, with the end of the war and repatriation of the prisoners, the activities of the Prisoner of War Department of the Red Cross wound down. From the date of its inception until the Armistice the Australian Red Cross despatched 395,695 food parcels and 36,339 clothing parcels.