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SHAHJAHANPUR POW CAMP, INDIA - by: Elmarie

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On 19 October 1901 the first prisoners arrived at the camp located some two miles from the station, near some very old ruins crawling with jackals and other unpleasant vermin according to A.P. Burger. The jackals made a pest of themselves in the camp. Many a POW lost a treasured pair of shoes to these four-legged thieves who were not afraid of approaching the tents in broad daylight.
The men were housed in large marquee tents with sides that could open. Each POW received a wooden bed, a mattress, cushions, two sheets, blankets and a chest for their clothes. They also received a knife, fork, and mug on arrival. In April 1902 J.J. Boshoff wrote to his sister that they were on the verge of moving to huts that had thatched roofs. Boshoff expressed the wish in a letter to his sister that the women and children were looked after in the same way that the POWs were. Near the camp there was a river with clean clear fountain water where Pieter Dippenaar bathed twice a week in December 1902. Trees surrounded the camp so that they did not have much of a view.
The Boer camp housed some 1000 POWs under Lieutenant-Colonel M Jacson. Lieutenant-Colonel J.H. Campbell, Captains G. Head and P. Hind later replaced him respectively. The camp was only closed on 3 January 1903.

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