POW Camps in India

The marriage of Edward Meyers, Boer Prisoner of War took place on 28 November 1902 at Amritsar

Prisoner of War and Internment Camps in India

Boer War

Until April 1901 the British captured approx 25,000 Boers. Of these various numbers were sent to various places as POWs. Only a total of 9000 Boer POWs were ever sent out to India of this number, and they were held in some 14-15 camps in selected Indian cantonments. A ten year old boy was known to be a prisoner in India.

In India, there were Boer prisoners of war camps at

• Kakool (Kakul) near Abbottabad
• Ahmadnagar
• Bellary
• Bhim Tal, near Naini Tal
• Dagshai and Solon
• Fort Govindgarh, (Gobindgarh) , Amritsar
• Kaity (Keti,Kaiti) in the Nilgiris, near Ootacamund. There is also mention of a camp at Wellington which is in the same area. It is not known whether these are the same, or different camps.
• Satara
• Shahjahanpur
• Sialkot
• Trichinopoly
• Umballa, now Ambala.
• Upper Topa, near Murree

(Information mainly from the Anglo Boer War Museum website)

Catalogue reference BACSA Archive at the British Library Ceylon: Boer POW Camp Mss Eur F370/785

FamilySearch digitised microfilms

• Archives of the Staff Officer, Prisoners of War, Cape Town, 1900-1903 (SO/POW). Digitised microfilm of originals at the Transvaal Archives Depot, Pretoria. Contains details of Boer prisoners of war, lists of prisoners who were in the various camps in India, Ceylon, St. Helena and Portugal, lists of prisoners who were released, paroled or who took the oath of allegiance.
• Lists of prisoners of war in South Africa, 1899-1902. Digitised microfilm of original manuscripts in Orange Free State Archives, Bloemfontein, Republic of South Africa. High reduction (42x) microfilm, use high magnification reader. Published lists of Afrikaner prisoners of war, arranged alphabetically and chronologically, with full name, home address, marital status, regiment location, age; date and place of capture, internment, death, relocation; notes on parole, rank, or release during the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902). Besides South Africa, many P.O.W.s were relocated to the island of St. Helena, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and elsewhere in the British Empire.
• Both series of digitised microfilms appear to be freely available on your home computer, but if not, see FamilySearch Centres for viewing options.

External links

• POW Camps Overseas. Prisoner of War Camps in the Boer War in India , Ceylon and St Helena from Anglo Boer War Museum. This website includes a Prisoners of War database search.
• Camps for Boers - India angloboerwar.com (This link is found at Miscellaneous information/Prisoner of war camps/ Camps for Boers – India). Also Camps for Boers - Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Camps for Boers - St Helena.
• Boers (ancestry24.com, now archived) includes a section “Boer Prisoners of War – Camps” (scroll down) including general mention of the camps in India.
• Article "South-South Gothic" by Isabel Hofmeyr, University of the Witwatersrand. jwtc.org.za, now archived. “A haunting tale of suspense featuring a cemetery in the punjab, boer prisoner of war graves, cold war neo-medievalism and much more”. The cemetery at Ambala.
• Article "Boer Prisoners Of War In India" by E S Reddy written in 1991-1992. Now an archived webpage. A download to your computer, which you may need to locate in a downloads folder)
  • Contains “Inscriptions on Gravestone at Ambala Cemetery, Ambala, Haryana State, India, for Boer Prisoners of War Who Died At Ambala”.
• Article "India and the Anglo-Boer War" by E S Reddy 29 July 1999 now archived, version from mkgandhi.org, without footnotes
• Hansard transcripts
  • Boer Prisoners - Internment In India. 13 June 1901
  • Boer Prisoners in India. 09 March 1903
• Newspaper article At Ahmednagar. The Boer Prisoners West Gippsland Gazette (Warragul, Victoria) 10 December 1901. Trove (nla.gov.au)
• "A Boer in Bangalore" by Adam Yamey 14 September 2016 Confluence. George Glaeser Munnik, a Boer Officer, was a POW at Trichinopoly and later Amritsar. During his stay in India he was able to visit Bangalore and the Kolar Gold Fields. He wrote an account A Boer in India published 1903. He subsequently became a Senator in South Africa.
• Ahmednagar: Fort: Boer and German POWs Held by the British YouTube Video. Contains some cemetery images.
• India 1902 Fort Govindgarh Censored Envelope With Letter "The POW camp at Fort Govindargh was known as "The Hell" amongst the 1200 Boer prisoners kept there. The heat was oppressive and the Boers sometimes swam in the moat surrounding the fort. The water, however, was polluted and inevitably would give both the POWs and their guards typhoid fever. The camp was eventually closed on 10 December 1902". filat.ch, now an archived webpage.
• Boer prisoner of war art Extract of article by Fransjohan Pretorius in History Today 1 March 2006, now an archived webpage.
• Time to settle old score 20 December 20 2011. iol.co.za. Contains reference to the playing of cricket in the camps, particularly in Ceylon, and contains a photograph of the Ahmednagar Boer Cricket Club in India who "played frequently against their British guards". (archive.org link)
• The History of Tennis in the Free State advises that tennis was played at the camps in Ahmednagar, Amritsar and Trichinopoly. freestatetennis.co.za, now an archived webpage.
• Photograph of Boer prisoners held by the British army at Kakul, India (now in Pakistan) during the Second Boer War, 1902. Getty Images
• Abstract of an article "The erection and maintenance of monuments to Boer prisoners of war in India 1902-1948" by J Wassermann South African Journal of Cultural History Volume 24, No 2 (2010). (archive.org link)
• Anglo Boere Oorlog/Boer War (1899-1902) POW India geni.com
• Anglo Boere Oorlog/Boer War (1899-1902) POW Ceylon geni.com
  • Diyatalawa by Major Anton Edema. POW Camp for Boers in Ceylon.

Also see the Fibiwiki page Ceylon for additional information about POWs in Ceylon.

• Anglo Boere Oorlog/Boer War (1899-1902) POW Saint Helena geni.com

"Boer prisoners of war on the Island of St Helena" by A J Nathan. Military History Journal Vol 11 No 3/4 - October 1999. The South African Military History Society.

• Article "Island of no return" (St. Helena) by Gavin Bell Weekend Australian 14 July 2012 Travel and Indulgence section, page 1 briefly says "Nothing remains of a prisoner-of-war camp on a high plateau where 6000 Afrikaners were held during the Boer War, but the graves of 156 who never saw their homeland again are carefully tended on a steep hillside. Two granite obelisks bearing their names stand as a memorial ...". Now an archived webpage.

Also see the Fibiwiki page St. Helena for additional information about POWs in St. Helena.

• Details of The Anglo-Boer War Diaries of Jan Geldenhuys Includes the period from April 1902 when he was captured and sent as a prisoner of war to Umballa, where his experiences till 20th November 1902, were documented. He later met up with his father and brother who were POW’s at Bhimtal. The diaries were originally written in High Dutch. (archive.org link)

Historical books online

• Recollections of a Boer Prisoner-Of-War at Ceylon by J N Brink, "late adjudant of General Crowther" 1904 Archive.org
• Boer Prisoner of War Deaths at Kakul, Abbottabad. Also includes two guards. "Monumental Inscriptions, Third Series" Part VI Nos.1891-2000 by H Bullock, Major page 97 Bengal Past and Present Volume 53 January-June 1937. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.

First World War

Historical books online

• Reports on British prison-camps in India and Burma, visited by the International Red Cross Committee in February, March and April, 1917 1917 Archive.org Contents
  • page 18 Sumerpur, Rajputana. Mainly Turkish prisoners of war, some civilians
  • page 25 Ahmednagar, Bombay Presidency. Mainly civilian, but some military including captured crews of German ships
  • page 35 Belgaum, Bombay Presidency .German and Austrian civilians
  • page 40 Bellary, Bombay Presidency. Turkish prisoners of war
  • page 44 Depot Camp at Calcutta for prisoners of war in transit to Burma
  • page 45 Katapahar in the Hills near Darjeeling. Civilians
  • page 47 Thayetmyo, Burma. Turkish prisoners of war.
  • page 57 Camp for Convalescents at Shwebo, Burma. Turkish prisoners of war.
  • page 59 Quarantine Camp Rangoon, Burma. Turkish prisoners of war.

The original report (in French), also available Archive.org version, appears to contain some additional information, such as the location of camps, and more details of the types of prisoners. (From the website "Prisoners of the First World War-ICRC Historical Archives")

• List of Places of Internment produced by the Prisoners of War Information Bureau in 1919 is an alphabetical listing of Prisoner-of-War camps in Britain and the Commonwealth during the First World War. It is available in a reprint edition, which in turn is available as an online book on the Ancestry owned pay website fold3 titled Prisoners of War Information Bureau: List of Places of (located in World War II/Military Books/Britain, letter P)

Nineteen camps were in this 1919 (January) list in India:

Ahmednagar, Bankura, Belgaum, Bellary, Colaba War Hospital, Cumballa War Hospital, 34th General Hosp (Deolali), 44th General Hosp (Deolali), Indian Troops War Hosp Poona, Indian Troops War Hosp Marine Lines Bombay, Nowgong, Thayetmyo (in Burma), Meiktila (also Burma), Takdah [Darjeeling area], Sholapur, Yercaud, Poona Military Prison, Victoria War Hospital Bombay, Sumerpur. In addition, a 1915 postcard from Dinapur addressed to Germany had been seen with a "Prisoner of War Mail" caption on it.

• List of Enemy Subjects Interned in Civil Detention Camps. Home Department March 1918. The camps included are Takdah, Berhampore, Bankura, all Bengal Presidency, Belgaum, Bombay Presidency, and Yercaud, Madras Presidency. From the National Archives of India, reference File No.: HOME_POLITICAL_A_1918_MAR_93-95 indianculture.gov.in . Some pages may be difficult to view on a fixed computer screen as the pages are "on their side".
• The POW Camps are mentioned on pages 211-212, Under Ten Viceroys: the Reminiscences of a Gurkha by Major-General Nigel Woodyatt 1922 Archive.org
• "Australian Nurses in India 1916-1919". Scroll to page 124, With Horse and Morse in Mesopotamia: The Story of Anzacs in Asia edited by Keast Burke 1927. Includes a list of the main WW1 hospitals in India, and there are mentions of the treatment of Turkish POWs at these hospitals. NZsappers.org.nz has two digital files/series, the first contains some digital pages which are of very poor quality. The second series of files from nzsappers.org.nz Pages 1-70, pages 71-132; pages 133-206. Also see External links, below.
• Further correspondence respecting the proposed release of civilians interned in the British and German empires. (In continuation of "Miscellaneous, no. 35 (1916)": Cd. 8352.) HMSO, London 1917. Presented to both Houses of Parliament January 1917. Archive.org
• Agreement between the British and Ottoman governments respecting prisoners of war and civilians Presented to Parliament April 1918 HMSO. Archive.org
• Lauterbach of the China Sea : the Escapes and Adventures of a Seagoing Falstaff by Lowell Thomas, 1930 Archive.org. During WW1 Julius Lauterbach was navigator on the German SMS Emden and subsequently was a prisoner in Singapore at Tangling prison camp page 95, and helped ferment dissatisfaction which led to the 1915 Singapore Mutiny, during which he escaped and fled, initially to Sumatra.

External links

• 
Prisoners Of The First World War- 
ICRC Historical Archives. International Committee of the Red Cross. Includes a free Search facility. Retrieved 4 August 2014
  • The International Prisoners-of-War Agency. The ICRC in World War One. pdf An eleven page 2007 document setting out the type of records available. Retrieved 4 August 2014
• Finding Aid: Foreign Office Files (FO 383) at the National Archives: Regarding Military & Civilian Prisoners of War: List of Files and Contents: 1915-1919. Compiled September 2014 by seaforths of the Great War Forum, and now available as a pdf from that Forum. Contains references such as
  • Reference: FO 383/20 1915. Description: Germany: Prisoners, including: Correspondence regulations at Ahmednagar, India: includes printed copy of Memorandum issued by the Adjutant General in India (in docket no.147691).
  • Reference: FO 383/436 1918 Description: Germany: Prisoners, including: Lists (in docket nos. 97151 and 109002) of German civilians transferred from East Africa to camps at Ahmednagar and Belgaum, India, with printed correspondence relating to individual cases.
• India: first mission led to long tradition of humanitarian action in Asia icrc.org. Includes photograph taken at Belgaum, WW1.
• The POW Camp at Belgaum is mentioned in the entry for 6 April 1917 from The Diary of Frederick Pendall, a member of the Norfolk regiment who was in Belgaum from March 1917 to March 1918 (archived website).
• Postcards of British Camps includes two of Ahmednagar. grandeguerre.icrc.org. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
• Postcard to Germany from Ahmednagar POW camp 1919 stampcommunity.org, now an archived webpage.
• Ahmednagar from German Missions in British India Nationalism: Case and Crisis in Missions by Paul von Tucher 1980. From the website "Gaebler info and Genealogy" section Indien
• Reports of Germans about the time of the First World War in British India Includes two reports concerning Ahmednager, and reports from missionaries in the camps. In German language, with Google Translate English version, or Google Chrome provides an automatic translation. From the website "Gaebler info and Genealogy", section Indien. See Second World War-Italian prisoners of war for comments about Google Translate.
• Prisoners of war and civilian internees captured by British and Dominion forces from the German colonies during the First World War by Mahon Murphy. A thesis submitted to the Department of International History of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, July 2014. The references to India appear to be minor, but Ahmednagar is mentioned on pages 59 and 67, and Belgaum is also mentioned on page 59. There is a map, which includes camps in India and Ceylon, on page 7, with a description on page 9.
• Turkish POWs at Deolali are mentioned in Reading between unwritten lines: Australian Army nurses in India, 1916-19 by Ruth Rae. Australian War Memorial website. (archive.org link)
  • From notes in the Australian Archives regarding 34 Welsh General Hospital in Deolali : Sister Alma L. Bennett, Matron in 1917, said: ‘containing 3000 beds – 4 hrs train journey from Bombay'. ... Our cases were all from Mesopotamia – some direct – others individually coming from various Bombay Hospitals… We also had 200 Turkish Prisoners of War, almost all Surgical cases, some with shocking wounds – septic.’ Matron Gertrude Davis said: ‘When we became a P. of W. hospital our number of beds was increased to 700, 200 for British and 500 for prisoners as later we had the German prisoners from East Africa also an occasional one from Mespot’.

Also see Historical books online, above.

• Turkish POWS on the ship S.S. Ellenga in Bombay Harbour in late December 1915 are mentioned in a poem written by Rifleman John Layton of the 18th Battalion, Rifle Brigade, who wrote "Those barbarious Turkish brutes, who looked a deplorable sight. They were dirty and covered with vermin, dying like rotten sheep"
• There was a POW Camp for Turkish prisoners at Kirkee. It is possible that it was located near a hospital to provide labour for the hospital. An image of an tobacco tin was seen, with the inscription Prisoners of War Camp Kirkee India 1914-1918 A V Lawes 62515 8th Welch Pioneers, perhaps indicating the camp was in operation throughout the war.
• British Library India Office Records catalogue Search result IOR/L/PJ/6/1504, File 4110 includes a brief mention of Turkish War Prisoners Camp, Nowgong, Central India.
• Turkish POWs in India and Burma: First World War, Part 1 by Vedica Kant September 14, 2012; Part 2 September 17, 2012 amitavghosh.com
• "Indian Soldiers and POWs in the Middle East during World War I" by Vedica Kant, Robert Upton, and Chris Gratien, Ottoman History Podcast, No. 86 (December 21, 2012) “ In this podcast, Vedica Kant talks about the experience of Indian POWs in the Ottoman Empire as well as that of Ottoman soldiers captured by the British army and brought to India and Burma, with additional commentary by Robert Upton regarding military recruitment in British India...” Webpage contains images of prisoners at Bellary and Thayetmyo. (archive.org link)
• The history hidden in Haydarpaşa Cemetery by Vedika Kant 01 August 2013. turkishreview.org, now an archived webpage. Includes a section on the Thayetmyo POW camp
• "Turkish and Armenian Prisoners of War Held in India and Burma During WWI" by Harut Sassounian August 6, 2019 The Armenian Weekly.
• BİRİNCİ DÜNYA SAVAŞI’NDA İNGİLİZLERE ESİR DÜŞEN TÜRK ASKERLERİ by Vedat TÜFEKÇİ Turkish language doctoral thesis, Istanbul University 2019. English title (possibly) "Turkish soldiers who were captured by the British in the first war". Appears to include chapters about camps in India and Burma, from page 141. Use Google Translate

Second World War

The Prisoners-of-war were interned in India in 29 camps forming 6 Groups of camps. In addition, there were two Civil Internment Camps at Dehradun and Deoli and one camp in Delhi for the Japanese prisoners captured in Burma.

Some 18,400 Italian prisoners of war (out of 50,000 requested by the Australian Government, to be employed as farm labourers) were transported from India to Australia from 1943. Some of the [Italian?] POWs in India were shipped to South Africa to help build the railway there.

• Group I – Bangalore: Camps 1 to 8 - Italian prisoners. There were Camps at Jakkur, Hebbal and Jalahalli.
• Group II – Bhopal: Camps 9 to 16 – Italian prisoners. Camp 16 was a hospital. Bhopal Bairagarh (Wikipedia)
• Group III – Ramgarh: Camps 17 to 20 – German Civil Internees and later Italian prisoners. Had a punishment camp for difficult Italian POWs Ramgarh was near Hazaribagh. It was used as a POW camp up to May 1942 when the POWs were moved out and the United States Chinese Training Command was established there.
• Group IV - Clement Town (Dehra Dun): Camps 21 to 24 – Separated in Wings 1: pro-Nazi, 2: anti-Nazi, 3: Italians. One of the camps was a *Central Internment Camp.
• Group V – YOL: Camps 25 to 28 – Italian prisoners. Yol was situated near Dharamsala
• Group VI – Bikaner: Camp 29 – Japanese prisoners. It was also a punishment camps for difficult Italian POWs.Bikaner (Wikipedia)
• Central Internment Camp (Dehra Dun / Premnagar): This was mixed civilian internment and prisoner-of-war camp. Italian prisoners of war and German civilian internees housed in separate camps. Wing 1 and Wing 6 held German internees.
• Delhi – Japanese Camp: Delhi housed the Japanese prisoners captured in Burma.
• Deoli (Ajmer) – Civil Internment Camp: Deoli housed German civilian internees and Japanese civilian internees. It was also a punishment colony for Germans. Deoli (Wikipedia)

The above information is mainly taken from the website Indian Banknote:India: Prisoner-of-War Coupons (archive.org link).

This Wikipedia article lists the following additional camps

• Deolali from February 1941, later also transferred to Dehra Dun 11 August 1941: Germans.
• Yercaud for females from Madras Presidency. Summer 1941, closed late 1942.
• Fort William, Calcutta, army camp, closed early 1940, males were sent to Ahmednagar, females to Katapahar parole camp.
• Smaller Parole Camps at Naini Tal, Kodaikanal and Katapahar (near Darjeeling), were all closed by late 1942. Inmates transferred to (family reunions) to the camps near Poona: Satara from May 1940, Purandhar (lower Fort), initially for Jewish refugees, later also other Germans, many missionaries with families.

There was an internment camp at Mhow for Germans residing in India.

Catalogue reference BACSA Archive at the British Library India: Italian POW Camps Mss Eur F370/853

There are some catalogue references at the British Library in the series IOR/L/PJ/8/1-76 Collection 101: Aliens ‎ (1931-1950), particularly from OR/L/PJ/8/30A "Coll 101/10A; Treatment of aliens, prisoners of war and civilian internees in India ‎ (Apr 1939-Aug 1943)" onwards, including "Nominal rolls and monthly returns"; "Reports on internment camps in India (excluding Japanese camps) ‎ (Oct 1942-Oct 1945)"; Internees; "Repatriation of civilians" etc.Search for these records in the Archives and Manuscripts catalogue.

External links

• Indian Banknote: India: Prisoner-of-War Coupons Money used in the Prisoner-of-War Camps. (archive.org link)
• World and Military Notes contains examples of money used in the Prisoner-of-War Camps. (archive.org link)
• Use DeepL Translator or Google Translate Italian language Prigioniero a Yol India about the money used in the camps. (archive.org link)

German prisoners of war

• India gaebler.info. (archive.org link). Includes
  • "German Missions in India" mainly in German language but includes
    • extracts from the book German Missions In British India Nationalism: Case And Crisis In Missions by Paul Von Tucher 1980 concerning internment of German missionaries during World War 2 at Premnagar near Dehra Dun, Purandhar, about 40kms south-east of Poona and Satara. (archive.org link)
      • Campus Teutonicus At Dehra Dun (archive.org link)
      • Purandhar (archive.org link)
      • Satara (archive.org link)
  • Prisoners of the Raj by Roger Croston. Originally published in The Alpine Journal 2006 Escape from internment at Dehra Dun. (archive.org link)
  • Escape by Rolf Magener from internment at Dehra Dun (archive.org)
  • World War II in British India by Hermann M. Selzer, M. D. Born a Polish Jew, he studied medicine in Germany and Italy and worked with his wife, as doctors in Lahore from the late 1930s. In December 1940, the family was arrested and taken as enemy aliens to first Purandhar and then Satara internment camps in Southern India until August 1946, when they were released and returned to Lahore. (archive.org link)
    • Internment and Parole Camp Purandhar. (archive.org link). The author details how the Camp Commandant misappropriated money meant for the medical care of the prisoners and also money from their food allowance, which is described in this link (archive.org links 1 and 2)
    • Internment and Parole Camp Satara (archive.org link)

Italian prisoners of war

• "Délégations du Comité international dans les cinq continents: Rapports télégraphiques sur des visites de camps de prisonniers de guerre et d'internés civils" a section commencing page 347, part of Revue Internationale de la Croix-Rouge et Bulletin international des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge Volume 27, Issue 317, May 1945 French language. Scroll to digital page 6 (page 350 of original document) "Delegation aux Indes britannique" for details of a visit to India 26 February to 20 March [1945]. icrc.org. If required, copy and paste the text in DeepL Translator or Google Translate

ICRC photographs: Bangalore. Group I. Italian prisoners of war camp. ICRC delegate with a group of detainees 3/44; Italian prisoners of war camp. ICRC delegate with italian detainees 10/44; Italian prisoners of war camp. Delegate visiting the cemetery 10/44; Group IV. Italian prisoners of war camp, ICRC's delegates with italian doctors in front of the patient's barrack. WW2.

• "Italian Prisoners of War and Internees in India" blogs.bl.uk. Records relating to Italian Prisoners of War and Internees WW2 at the British Library. (archive.org link)
• "Yol: Once a haven for prisoners of war" (Scroll down) by Rajendra Rajan Saturday, October 17, 1998 The Tribune (tribuneindia.com) (archive.org link)
• For the following links use a Translator. If you use Google Chrome, click on the archived Italian link, then use the translation link within Google Chrome. Alternatively copy and paste using DeepL Translator or Google Translate.
• "The story of the ten thousand Italian soldiers prisoners in India" Google Translate English title of original Italian version: "La storia dei diecimila soldati italiani prigionieri in India" (1a parte), (2a parte), (3a parte) loccidentale.it, now archived webpages
• "Updated list of Italian prisoners in Yol (India)": Google Translate English title of original Italian version "Elenco aggiornato dei prigionieri italiani a Yol (India)" loccidentale.it, now archived.
• "10,000 in Himalayas: a story of war" Google Translate English title of original Italian version "10.000 in Himalaya: una storia di Guerra" erewhon.ticonuno.it, now archived. Mentions the book 10.000 in Himalaya 1941-1947 Tesori, Orsi, Idee, Fughe - Treasures, Bears, Ideas, Escapes by Lido Saltamartini, published 1997 by Humana of Ancona. Parallel Italian and English text and illustration captions, with many images. Available at the Imperial War Museums, reference IWM LBY 05 / 527. The webpage includes a link to
  • an Interview with Toto Fabbri, about his time at Yol 1942-1946 from the website chiamamicitta.com, the online magazine of the city of Rimini. Original Italian version "Quattro anni a due passi dal Tibet" (now archived)
• "Prisoners in India" Google Translate English title of original Italian version "Prigionieri in India" digilander.libero.it (archive.org link)
• Italian POWs in India, 1944 faroutliers.blogspot. (archive.org link)
• Aviators from WWII Generale di Brigata Aerea Alfredo Balsamo (archive.org link). Contains a few photographs of Italian prisoners at Yol camp
• "Umberto's War: From the diary of Umberto Cofrancesco" (archive.org link): From capture in Libya to the prisoner of war camps at Ramgarh and Bairagarh page 6. page 7, page 8 cofrancesco.net (archive.org links 1, 2 and 3). He was subsequently transferred to Australia.
• "Memories of an Italian Naval Signalman" bbc.co.uk
  • Part Four - From POW Camp at Geneiffa, Egypt to a POW Camp at Poona, India
  • Part Five - From Poona to POW Camp at Ramghar, India
  • Part Six - From Ramghar to POW Camp 26/3 at Pathankot, Kangra Vallery, near Kashmir on to Bhopal in April 1944 and arrival in Greenoch on 1st June 1944. (archive.org links 1, 2 and 3)
• From the website "Footprints of Italian Prisoners of War in Australia"
  • In India
  • Prigionieri in India
• This link mentions a diary book written by an Italian POW in Dehra Dun: Prigioniero in India: Vita quotidiana e grande storia nel diario di un ufficiale (Collana di biografie e testimonianze) by Domenico Salvatori 1989 ( No preview Google Books details). Includes bibliographical references. Google English translation: Prisoner in India: everyday life and great history in the diary of an officer
• Bairagarh near Bhopal. Some details of the specially built camp. (archive.org link)
• An Italian POW in India (Bhopal) timesofmalta.com. Includes a photograph of a football team. (archive.org link)
• Photographs from flickr.com, tagged Bhopal camp barracks ruins, camp ruins. drainage system, the POW camp
• This British Library catalogue entry indicates some photographs of the Italian prisoners of war camp at Bairagarh (Bhopal) are in the collection.
• Photograph of a Group of Italian POWs at the Ramgarh POW camp in northern India 1942. Group of Italian POWs about to begin a soccer game at the Ramgarh POW camp in northern India 1942 trove.nla.gov.au

Japanese internees

• "A forgotten story from the Second World War" by Hedley Sutton. Untold lives blog, British Library. Japanese internees in the Internment Camp, Deoli (Ajmer). The majority were interned during December 1941 in Singapore and Malaya, although a few were picked up in Burma and in India itself. There is a reference to British Library records IOR/L/PJ/8/405.
• Photograph: Bikaner. Camp n° 29 de prisonniers de guerre japonais. 11/44 Bikaner. Japanese Prisoner of War Camp No.29. icrc.org.

Records

British Library

Records include

• IOR/L/ PJ/8/1-76 Collection 101: Aliens ‎ (1931-1950) which includes sub categories such as IOR/L/ PJ/8/31 Coll 101/10AA; Nominal rolls of internees and parolees in India and IOR/L/ PJ/8/34 Coll 101/10AB; Reports on internment camps in India (excluding Japanese camps) ‎ (Oct 1942-Oct 1945).
• United Kingdom High Commission files relating to cemeteries IOR/R/4/1-539 1943-1967. Transferred from Indian Public Works Department to the British High Commission, New Delhi, and from there to the India Office Records in 1972-73. As they were originally Public Works Department files, they may not often (if at all) refer to individuals.
  • File 18/3/1 General correspondence on prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/102 Dec 1947-Feb 1951
  • File 18/3/2 General correspondence on prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/103 Feb 1951-Jul 1965
  • File 18/3a Lucknow Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/104 Mar 1951-Jul 1952
  • File 18/3b Bombay Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/105 Nov 1948-May 1953
  • File 18/3c Nasik Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/106 Nov 1948-Jul 1952
  • File 18/3d Calcutta Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/107 Nov 1948-May 1953
  • File 18/3e Nagpur Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/108 Oct 1951-Dec 1953
  • File 18/3f Punjab Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/109 Jul 1948-May 1953
  • File 18/3g Delhi Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/110 May 1949-May 1953
  • File 18/3h Chota-Nagpur Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/111 Jul 1950-Apr 1953
  • File 18/3i Madras Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/112 Nov 1948-Jun 1953
  • File 18/3j Assam Diocese: cemeteries containing prisoner of war graves IOR/R/4/113 Nov 1948-Jun 1949
  • File 18/4/1 Correspondence on German prisoner of war graves in India IOR/R/4/115 Dec 1952-Jul 1953

Note these records are available on FamilySearch (LDS) microfilm where there is more detail provided about the individual items, in the "Film Notes" and is indicated there are at least some lists of prisoner-of-war graves. As an example “R/4/102-103 Correspondence regarding prisoner-of-war graves (frames 1213-1222, 1325-1327, 1339, 1358, 1397, 1401-1402 include a list of prisoner-of-war graves, as well as 33rd Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Also includes list of cemeteries that include German, Boer, Italian, and Turkish graves), ca. 1947-1954”

• BACSA Archive at the British Library Mss Eur F370
  • Mss Eur F370/785 Diyatalawa Camp, Ceylon 1900-1946 ‎ (1900-1946)
  • Mss Eur F370/852 Boer POW Camps, India and Ceylon 1899-1903
  • Mss Eur F370/853 Italian POW Camps, WWII

• See First World War - External links for a brief mention of a Turkish POW camp at Nowgong

• For Italian records during WWII, see Italian prisoners of war above.

• For Japanese internee records from WWII, see Japanese internees above.

The National Archives

• FO 383 Foreign Office: Prisoners of War and Aliens Department: General Correspondence from 1906 Includes references to camps in India.