Capt Robert Campbell returned to Germany after visiting his dying mother (Picture: Masons)

A British soldier was freed from a prisoner of war camp to see his dying mother – and kept his promise to the Kaiser to return to Germany.

Capt Robert Campbell wrote to Kaiser Willhelm II during World War I begging to be released so he could see his mother, Louise, for the final time.

The German leader granted him two weeks’ compassionate leave as long as he kept his word as an officer to go back to the camp afterwards – which he did.

Historian Richard van Emden discovered the tale while researching a book.


‘Capt Campbell was an officer and he made a promise on his honour to go back,’ Mr Van Emden said.



‘Had he not turned up, there would have been retribution on other prisoners.

‘What I think is more amazing is that the British Army let him go back to Germany.

‘The Army could have said “You’re not going back, you’re going to stay here”.

‘I think it is such a unique example that I don’t think you can draw any parallels.’

Capt Campbell, of the 1st Battalion The East Surrey Regiment, was 29 when he was captured weeks after the start of the conflict in 1914.

He was allowed to leave his prison camp in December 1916, when he visited his mother in Gravesend, Kent. She died of cancer a few months later.

Capt Campbell returned to the camp in Magdeburg and stayed until the Armistice two years later. He served during World War II and died in 1966 at the age of 81.