This edition of the Yorkshire Post (MS1553) was produced by a group of Yorkshire airmen in a German POW camp in 1944. It was the idea of Sgt Richard Pape who had worked on the editorial staff of the Yorkshire Post prior to the outbreak of war. It took over five weeks of painstaking work to complete.

The contents of the Kriegie Yorkshire Post are varied; from cartoons, poems reports of life in the camp including entertainments, portraits of some of the camp members to articles on sport, Yorkshire’s heritage and buying a house.

The foreward by James A.G. Deans the Camp Leader reads:

“It is natural that the P.O.W. should think much of all that he has left behind, and that every link connecting him with his land, county, and his town or village should assume a greater significance in this life.

That is why the Country and County Societies such as “The White Rose Club” flourish and play such an important part in our camp life. The meetings together, the talks of home, the sound of the familiar dialect, and the uniting of common memories, all help to strengthen the ties with home, and bring a Soothing influence. Home does not seem so far away when men of one place get together and talk about it…

I have watched the forming of the various societies with great interest & pleasure, and as I have so many ties with Yorkshire myself, I have particular interest in “The White Rose Club.” It has made good progress in this camp………I look forward to it making even better, and most of all I look forward to the time when we shall all be able to meet together as members of the “Stalag Luft White Rose Club”…at home in Yorkshire.

Finally, I should like to wish Good Luck to “The White Rose Club” & to all its members…"

The newspaper was produced in secret and smuggled back to England. After the war, approximately 300 copies in book form were distributed to all the Yorkshiremen released from Stalag Luft VI in 1945. Their names and addresses are printed in the back of the book. The whereabouts of original manuscript is currently unknown. This item was featured on BBC’s Inside Out in January 2010.

Kirsty McHugh, Archivist