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Sabine’s battlefield guide Saturday : Corporal lermytte Joseph corneille dies as a POW in Germany.

Born 10/11/1887 in Poperinge son of August Corneel Lermytte and Euphrasie Cornelia Choor
Died 17/04/1915 in Saltau in das kriegsgefangenlazaret of pulmonary tuberculosis. Originally burried in Saltau( Germany) on the 19th of April 1915 grab 68 ( see image ) on 15/10/1926 he was reburied in Leopoldsburg( belgium) now grave P19
He was part of 4é chasseurs à pièd regiment ( Charleroi) but several sources give him as 1th regiment . I did not know what was correct after seeing his military record. But then I knew I had to go look for the history of the regiment and guess what ? typical Belgian I would say to make it that complicated, for the answer see bottom of blog.( I am born in Belgium)
The Soltau camp, was the largest German POW camp during the First World War. It was completed by the end of the winter of 1914/1915. Strictly speaking, it was two separate camps located close to each other with a total of more than 70 barracks and their own water and electricity supply. Both camps were fenced in with a double wire fence, and the so-called Mittelstraße ran between the camps.
During the war, mainly French and Belgians were interned, the majority of them soldiers. Some of the inmates did construction work in the surrounding area; for example, they built the toboggan run in the Soltau Bohemian Forest. The camp belonged to the X army corps . The camp commander was retired Major General Rübesamen. Thousands of prisoners were interned here, many of them French and the vast majority Belgian. In 1929, Doengens listed the following numbers in his work “Prisoner of War Peoples”:
Nationalität Offiziere Mannschaften
Franzosen 3 27.462
Russen 15 26.246
Belgier 0 11.373
Engländer 1 4.702
Serben 0 2.353
Rumänen 0 91
Italiener 0 1.232
Portugiesen 0 114
Zivilpersonen 215
The camp was sold in 1920, and the last prisoners left in 1921. 1400 people were buried in the prisoners’ cemetery. Many objects from the past can still be found (including remains of walls, cooking pots, insulators, jugs, etc.) and are now partly exhibited in the Soltau Museum.
on the 17th September 1938, the municipal council of the city of Poperinge decided to grant an allowance to the ijzer Tower Committee in Diksmuide for inscribing in the tower the names of fellow citizens who died. Joseph was one of the 129 men . ( from ‘ de gazette van Poperinge ‘ 09/04/1939)
The 4th Chasseurs à Pied is a regiment whose history is closely linked to that of the 1st Chasseurs . It was created in August 1914 in Charleroi, by the mobilization and splitting of the 1st Chasseurs. Engaged jointly in the defense of the forts of Liège, the losses linked to the fighting were equivalent to more than one battalion for each of the two regiments. The 4th Chasseurs was therefore disbanded on 8 August and merged with the 1st Chasseurs. The return of soldiers separated from the regiments during the first engagements made it possible to restructure the two regiments separately from the following 17 August, on an organic basis of two battalions.
Sources :
Pictures : Joseph lermytte, redcross files, military record