Of Tragedy and Valor
Sgt George Rumbelow (UK)

George Rumbelow was born in Thistley Green West Row Mildenhall Suffolk  in 1894, the son of  Charles Rumbelow and Anna Moore.

In 1914 he enlisted in Bury St Edmunds and served in the British Army, Suffolk Regiment, 7th Battalion. George was promoted to Sgt (Pioneer Sgt) in 1916. He was taken Prisoner of War in 1917 Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany after the battle of Le Cateau. 

The Battle of Le Cateau was fought on the Western Front during the First World War on 26 August 1914. The British Expeditionary Force and the French Fifth Army had retreated after their defeats at the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons.  In 1926, James Edmonds, the British official historian, wrote that of the 40,000 British troops who fought at Le Cateau, 7,812 became casualties, 2,600 being taken prisoner. 

Germany's Soltau Prisoner of War (POW) camp, located near Hanover, housed Allied prisoners including Russians, French, Belgians, Italians, and Australians. The camp was a large complex divided into sections, featuring wooden barracks, a large kitchen, and even its own church.  Soltau was the largest German prisoner-of-war camp of the First World War.  The camp held 35,000 men, but had 50,000 assigned to work camps registered there. 

Records show that George was interned from November 1917 until January 1919, some 14 months. 

He was discharged in 1919 before marrying Rose Human in December of 1920.

George passed away in 1988 at 94 yeara of age. George and Rose had 8 children.