TCD MS 10823 folio 36a recto
[Sept/Oct 1918] The evening we arrived at Parchim, where there was a very large prisoners camp, which was capable I believe of holding nearly 20,000 soldiers. There was British, Russian French & Belgian soldiers there & one barrack in the centre of the camp was set apart as a place of punishment for officers of the ninth corps & to this we were conducted. Here I found Edmundson, who had been caught a short way to the South of me & who had been brought there the day before.
Our escort on the way was very conversational & said they much admired our escape, which they thought very sporting: they added that they had always thought we were going from another place! They told us that Lord Farnham, Ashbourne & Howitt had since escaped by fusing the electric lights. This had been done by another officer from one of the windows of the house: he had connected together two wires that were not insulated & so had short circuited all the lights. This not only put out all the lights round the camp, but also in the town & railway station. In the confusion caused by the sudden darkness, Farnham & the other two had cut the barbed wire & escaped. The sentries heard the noise but could do nothing & fired wildly into the dark without however hitting anyone.
They also told me that the whole of the camp was down with influenza. My lost biscuits had been found by some small children, who had taken them to Lieutenant Schmidt (Kerensky as we used to call him) by whom, much to their amusement, the biscuits had been sent on to his wife at Hamburg.