After his return to England, Sylvester Leon soon embarked on new ventures which he set out in the extract, from a letter, shown below. As a consequence he was in Germany when war broke out in August 1914.
from 'Daily Gleaner', Jamuary 6, 1911
The item below records the marriage of Sylvester Leon on December 27, 1911. The parents of Miss Lowman were Thomas and Emily, tailor and dressmaker respectively, living at 33 Windsor Terrace, Penarth, near Cardiff, at the time of the 1901 Census. We know nothing of how the couple met or whether Emily went to Germany; so far no further reference to the young Mrs Leon has been noted.
... marriage of Mr. P. Sylvester Leon B A in England on 27th ultimo to Miss Emily Gertrude Lowman only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lowman of Cardiff.Mr. Leon's fame as an actor is known through the island.
Below: Cover of the camp magazine with a drawing of 'Bond Street', one of the streets in the camp
click on image for greater detail
The only information so far found on Sylvester Leon's imprisonment in a prisoner of war camp in Germany in World War I is in the newspaper items below from the Daily Gleaner. There is a mass of information on life in the camp at Ruhleben, and many references to theatrical performances there, in which he must have been involved. Once some one can research these sources, scattered in the UK, USA and Canada, it may be possible to give a better picture of this period of his life.
Daily Gleaner
1916
June 3 page 3
MR SYLVESTER LEON,
B.A.
It has. been arranged that on the return of the Jamaica choir from the country, that they will co-operate with other “Footlight Favourites,” and give a big benefit entertainment in response to the appeal of Mr Leon who is now a prisoner of War in Germany.
[ I do not seem to have picked up anything further on this function. Maybe it never happened, but I should check again, because something more might be said about Leon.]
June 19 page 6
MR. SYLVESTER LEON.
Above is a picture of Mr. P. Sylvester Leon, B.A., of Spanish Town, who is now a civilian prisoner of war in Germany. Mr. Leon, in a letter to his mother, expressed a wish that some assistance should be rendered him, and on the matter being represented to His Excellency the Governor, Sir William Manning has taken steps to secure assistance to Mr. Leon.
1917
January 17 page 14
MR. SYLVESTER LEON
THANKS SIR WILLIAM MANNING
FOR FOOD THAT IS BEING
SENT TO HIM
It will be remembered that His Excellency the Governor some time ago personally interested himself in the fate of Mr. Sylvester Leon, B.A.. a young Jamaican who is a prisoner of war in Germany. Sir William Manning made arrangements for the shipping of a fortnightly hamper of food from England to Mr. Leon which the latter appears to receive regularly, and the following is the text of a postcard from the war prisoner, which has just been received by His Excellency from Ruhleben Camp, Germany:
“November 18th. 1916.
“I am most grateful for the very nice parcels you have been sending me, and I have found the contents highly useful: and the fact that the parcels were sent from Jamaica make them doubly welcome to me. There are a number of Jamaicans here, whose names I intend handing on to Mr. Stufins at the Jamaica General War Fund. I am consoled to learn that Jamaica is recovering from the effects of the recent hurricanes. With renewed thanks.
“Iam.
“Your Excellency’
“Yours truly,
“SYLVESTERLEON.”
January 18page 6
PRISONERS IN LAND OF HUNS
A List of 13 Jamaicans
Who are Captives of
The Kaiser
SEVERAL ARE ADOPTED
Praiseworthy Action of
Mr. Alfred de C. Myers
Of this City.
A KIND RESIDENT OF HOLLAND,
The following is anextractfrom a letter from Mr. Sylvester Leon B.A., interned as a prisoner in Germany, to Mr. S. Straas, a Belgian refugee in Holland, and who is well known here. Mr. Straas gives the names of thirteen Jamaicans who are interned at the same camp at Ruhleben as himself, with their Jamaica addresses and the number of their barracks.
TheGleaner should like to know whether any of these formed part of any of the contingentsfrom Jamaica, whether they were in active service at the front when they were interned, and if they have any relatives in the island we should be glad if they will communicate with us.
We are pleased, however, to state that William Martin and Joseph Jarrett, Nos. 1 and 6 on the list published below, have been adopted by Mr. Alfred de C. Myers through Mr. Straas. Mr. Myers contributes 5/6 per month each, and the Society in Holland forwards fortnightly packages of food, etc., to them.
Nos. 2, 3 and 4, that s, Lother, Martin and Setton, have also been adopted by friends of Mr. Straas. This gentleman has been helping Mr. Sylvester Leon a good deal.
The letter follows:-
THE LETTER
“Englanderlager Ruhleben.
November 25th, 1916.
“Absender:
Sylvester Leon,
Barracks 5,
Box East Loft.
An. to Mr. S. Straas,
Post Box 12,
Ort. Scheveningen, Holland.
My dear Mr. Straas,
In answer to your very kind postcards, I hasten to send you herewith the names of my Jamaica comrades who are interned here with me. I have added to them the names of those from the other West Indian Islands, so that you have in this list the names of all those from the West Indies. [The Gleaner, or Mr. Straas, seems to have edited out the names of men from other islands.}
1.William Martin, from Kingston, Jamaica, Barrack 21.
2.Naboth Lother, from Kingston. Ja., Barrack 21.
3.John Martin, from Kingston, Jamaica, Barrack 21.
4.Charles Setton, from Spanish Town. Ja., Barrack 21.
5.John Palmer, from Montego Bay. Ja., Barrack 21.
6.Joseph Jarrett, from Falmouth, Ja.. Barrack 22.
7.James Edwards, from Brown’s Town, Ja., Barrack 21.
8.Isaac Blake, from Port Maria, Ja., Barrack 21.
9.John Stevens, from Sav-la-Mar. Ja., Barrack 21.
10.J. Danielson, from Darliston, Ja., Barrack 21.
11. Henry Buchanan, from Pimento Walk, Jamaica, Barrack 21.
12. Robert Chambers, from Crooked River, Ja.. Barrack 21.
13. Jerry Bartley, from St. Thomas. Ja., Barrack 21.
With renewed thanks, and best wishes, I am, my dear Mr. Straas,
Yours very sincerely,
(Sgd.) SYLVESTER LEON.”
[I have no information on any of the men mentioned.]
The real 'Bond Street' in Ruhleben
RUHLEBEN
Ruhleben Gefangenenlager (British Civilian Internment Camp) was established after the outbreak of the First World War at a racetrack in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin, and remained in operation until Armistice Day, 1918. At its peak, the camp held some 4,500 male civilians of military age who had been living or traveling in Germany when war was declared; prisoners were housed in stalls originally intended for racehorses. Most were British, but there were also a few dozen French and Italians, as well as Indians, Jamaicans, West Africans, and Zanzibarees, most of whom had been crewmembers of British merchant ships docked in German ports. About 300-400 internees were Jewish.
The internees established their own camp organization, mail service, social and sports clubs, cultural and educational programs, relief programs, religious services, and hygienic measures.
Two views of camp life
The up-side ...
Ruhleben was a pre-war race course just outside
Berlin, and throughout the war the men were
housed in the stables, hay barns, etc., so
the accommodation was often known as 'boxes'.
Due to the great number of teachers, university
lecturers, writers, travellers, etc. who ended
up there, it became a hot bed of culture with
its own newspaper, theatre, band and orchestras,
etc. It is recorded that one man who was due to
be repatriated, hid because he didn't want to
leave. There were never any POW there, and strange
to tell the internees were very hard on anyone
who tried to escape to Holland or Switzerland.
based on the book by J. Davidson Ketchum
The account given of the First World War prisoner of war camp, Ruhleben, by Ketchum (1965) is that of a holiday camp in comparison to the deprivations experienced by others. The camp was made up mainly of non-service personnel rounded up from their legitimate business in Germany at the outset of hostilities - businessmen, academics, holiday-makers, merchant seamen, entertainers and sportsmen, waiters and "resourceful vagabonds". For all it was an experience of learning, of education and for much of the time, of comradeship. An Arts and Science Union emerged in the camp to promote education and a Camp School was formed. Courses were given on Shakespeare, Mathematics, foreign languages and science. One student, Graham, wrote to his wife: "I am speaking four languages now in this camp, and only wish I had had this little experience twenty years ago." (1965:234) The Royal Society of Arts, the London Chamber of Commerce and London University allowed their courses to be studied at Ruhleben.
At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, there were approximately 5 000 British subjects living in Germany. Along with the crews of several merchant ships either captured at sea, or trapped in German harbours, they were detained in a prisoner of war camp - a racecourse at Ruhleben, in Spandau, a Berlin suburb. After a while, the prisoners began to manage their own internal affairs with no objection from the Germans, who strictly adhered to the Geneva Convention. Letters, books, sports equipment, craft material and when a printing press was allowed into the camp, this led to the production of the above two journals. These journals give an insight into how the prisoners, or 'campers' as they referred to themselves, tried to re-create normal civilian life. Numerous advertisements are included, from tailors, shoemakers, carpenters and barbers to language instructors, Japanese laundry, watchmakers and even a bookshop. Sports results and reports are also well represented, with football, rugby, cricket and golf being the most popular. Dramatic reviews, poetry, short stories and cartoons also featured, as did coverage of the election they held in July 1915. This fairly comfortable life the prisoners enjoyed became undone when the Ruhleben postal system they had introduced was declared illegal by the German Post Office.
from an introduction to the files of the camp magazine
Professor Alonzo E. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania, a food expert, and Dr. D. J. McCarthy, also of Philadelphia, joined my staff in 1916 and proved most efficient and fearless inspectors of prison camps. Dr. Taylor could use the terms calories, proteins, etc., as readily as German experts and at a greater rate of speed. His report showing that the official diet of the prisoners in Ruhleben was a starvation diet incensed the German authorities to such fury that they forbade him to revisit Ruhleben. Professor Buckhaus, the German expert, agreed with him in some of his findings. I do not know what will happen to the Professor, who seemed willing to do his best for the prisoners. He wrote a booklet on the prison camps which he asked permission to dedicate to me, but the War Office, which published the book, refused to allow him to make this dedication. It was a real pleasure to see the way in which Dr. Taylor carried on his work of food inspection; and his work, as well as that of the other doctors sent from America to join my staff, Drs. Furbush, McCarthy, Roler, Harns, Webster and Luginbuhl, did much to better camp conditions.
Dr. Caldwell, the sanitary expert, known for his great work in Serbia, now I believe head of the hospital at Pittsburgh, reported in regard to the prison diet: "While of good quality and perhaps sufficient in quantity by weight, it is lacking in the essential elements which contribute to the making of a well-balanced and satisfactory diet. It is lacking particularly in fat and protein content which is especially desirable during the colder months of the year. . . . There is considerable doubt whether this diet alone without being supplemented by the articles of food received by the prisoners from their homes would in any way be sufficient to maintain the prisoners in health and strength."
. . .
With the lapse of time the mental condition of the older prisoners in Ruhleben had become quite alarming. Soldier prisoners, when they enter the army, are always in good physical condition and enter with the expectation of either being killed or wounded or taken prisoner, and have made their arrangements accordingly. But these unfortunate civilian prisoners were often men in delicate health, and all were in a constant state of great mental anxiety as to the fate of their business and their enterprises and their families. In 1916, not only Mr. Grafton Minot, who for some time had devoted himself exclusively to the Ruhleben prisoners, but also Mr. Ellis Dresel, a distinguished lawyer of Boston, who had joined the Embassy as a volunteer, took up the work. Mr. Dresel visited Ruhleben almost daily and by listening to the stories and complaints of the prisoners materially helped their mental condition.
from My Four Years in Germany by US Ambassador, James W. Gerard
Click on the links below for background texts on Ruhleben and the other camps.
The many friends of Mr P Sylvester Leon BA of Spanish Town who was a prisoner of war in Germany will be pleased to learn that his relatives have heard from him to the effect that he has been released and is now in England.
