Wartime Education

"The most striking phenomenon in officer prisoners-of-war camps...was the demand for education. It was so widespread as to be almost universal, and it was both tenacious and urgent."

The University of London’s response to both world wars epitomised the ‘wartime spirit’ combining co-operation, resourcefulness and adaptability with the maintenance of high standards.

The University made immense contributions to enabling people to continue studying and to pass exams while serving in the Armed Forces, while being uprooted and moved from place to place and – perhaps most exceptionally – while serving as internees and prisoners of war.

Studying behind the wire

Ruhleben Camp in Germany was a racecourse that had been turned into a prison camp for up to 5,500 male civilian citizens of enemy countries, who were interned while living in or visiting Germany at the outbreak of the First World War. With the aid of American philanthropists such as John D. Rockefeller – the American YMCA funded and built a hall at Ruhleben where religious exercises were held and plays and lectures given. This included a library with several hundred books where internees were able to sit, read and write during the day. University of London Matriculation and degree-level exams were taken in the camp.

Letham Kay White (1897-1950)
was the son of Councillor Matthew White of Edinburgh City Council, and was interned at Ruhleben in 1914 after being arrested when he was on his summer holidays. Letham’s son, Kay White, writes: ‘My father, having left the Royal High School in Edinburgh aged 17, went to Germany in order to learn German. At that time there was a compulsory paper in German to get a degree in engineering. He was interned throughout the War in Ruhleben but this did not hinder a good education and career. During that time he did learn the language, and also learnt the art of sketching from fellow prisoners CM Horsfall (who made this sketch of Letham in 1917) and Healey Hislop’.

Second World War

The University of London was able to make use of the experience it had gained during the First World War to bring its operations swiftly onto a war footing in 1939. The University’s External System played a key role in acting as the collection, co-ordination and censoring point for all exam papers supplied to prisoner of war camps by UK examining bodies. Nearly 140 bodies were involved, and exam papers were sent out to some 17,600 candidates in 88 camps during the War. In the period from April 1942 to June 1945 10,104 candidates took exams.

A mental escape

The opportunity to study provided a mental escape from the tribulations of prison life. Captain Hamson, imprisoned during the Second World War, recalled: ‘The most striking phenomenon in officer prisoners-of-war camps...was the demand for education. It was so widespread as to be almost universal, and it was both tenacious and urgent. Though by profession a University don, I have not in peacetime encountered its equal. However, some part at least of this demand was a psychological reaction against captivity – that is to say, it was a method of escape from the immediate circumstances of prison life’.