A prisoner of war who had recently escaped from Germany was to be a one of the guest speakers at a major recruiting rally in Luton on Saturday, October 2nd, 1915.

Sgt Alfred Birley (pictured), of the 1st Battalion Gloucester Regiment, had already been summoned to Buckingham Palace to tell his story to King George V. By coincidence, his Bedford-born wife Ellen had been spending a considerable amount of time with her married sister Louisa Payne, who was living at 27 New Bedford Road, Luton.

The explanation of how a prisoner of war can be expected to attend the recruiting demonstration can be simply told, wrote The Luton News, although behind it there is a thrilling story which would surpass in exciting detail all the story books of our boyhood, but which for military reasons cannot yet be made public in detail.

Sgt Birley, in brief, found a way to get out of the camp in which he was imprisoned and, in company with a young Coldstream Guardsman, landed in England after tramping five night through Germany, suffering many privations and having many narrow escapes from recapture.

On Wednesday last week [September 22nd] Mrs Birley, who was then staying with her parents Mr and Mrs Gibbs, of Langleybury, Victoria Road, Bedford, had a wire to say the Sgt Birley was in England, and might be expected to arrive shortly. There was no explanation as to how he came to be in England, and his arrival was naturally awaited with profound excitement. He turned up at Bedford on Thursday and, despite his trying experiences, appeared to be in the pink.

But there was more excitement to follow. On Friday a telegram arrived requiring him to attend at Buckingham Palace with his comrade in order that the King might hear their story. It appeared to interest His Majesty exceedingly, and in conversation afterwards with one of out representatives Sgt Birley expressed himself highly pleased with his reception and the interest taken by His Majesty in his experiences.

"I was much surprised at the way His Majesty put us at our ease. It was just like chatting with a friend. He congratulated us on the success of our venture, and showed by his conversation that he took a keen personal interest in the welfare of the British prisoners in Germany," said Sgt Birley.

Later, he said: "I can tell you what made me resolve to escape. While I was in camp one day it came to my knowledge that my brother, who is a dispatch rider in France, had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his plucky action in delivering his dispatches after having his motorcycle smashed by a shell and continuing his journey on foot under heavy shell fire. After hearing that I thought: 'Well, if he could do that I,m going to do something'. So I made up my mind to escape, and here I am."

The details of the actual escape from Germany, and in particular from the camp in which he was imprisoned, have to be withheld for the present. But it is interesting to note that some of his early experiences in Germany fully support the stories of the inhuman treatment of prisoners which engaged so much attention in the early part of the war, but of which not quite so much is now heard.

Burnley-born Sgt Birley has been in the Army for some years, and has been in military service in South Africa. At the time when the present war broke out he was a Reservist. He went out to the Front in August of last year, and was captured by the enemy before Ypres on October 29th, 1914, while attempting to retake a lost trench. At the actual moment of his capture he was attending to a wounded man.

Of his experiences immediately following he says: "On the way to the prison in Westphalia we were pretty roughly treated. One night 53 of us were locked in a church and had nothing to eat for 24 hours. At last they emptied a basket of mouldy bread on to the floor, and left us a bucket of water.

"During the train journey, 53 of us were crammed into a closed railway van for 56 hours. Only once were we allowed to get out, and that for a few minutes. For food we had some scraps of bread."

For a greater part of the time Sgt Birley was at Munster, where several Luton soldiers are confined. But having made up his mind to have a dash for home, and seeing no possibility of getting a useful start from that camp, he arranged to get transferred to another camp, and there perfected the plans which worked out so well.

The camp was fenced with wire and lighted at night by powerful acetylene lamps, and it sees almost impossible that anyone could have got out. But the old proverb has it that seeing is believing, and as Sgt Birley and Pte Haworth are in England - and Sgt Birley has twice been to Luton since his escape and will be here again on Saturday - it must be believed that escape was possible.

To start with, wires had to be cut and 100 yards of open ground be crawled over before they could be said to have made a good start. Then they had all sorts of difficulties to encounter. They only had a little chocolate and a few biscuits, but these were made to suffice for two days. Afterwards, at great risk of capture, they had to find orchards and visit them in the dead of night to purloin apples, and on apples alone they had to exist for three days.

In all they were four days and five nights in Germany. It was not safe to travel by day, and even though they hid while daylight lasted it was several times only a matter of luck that they escaped detection. At times they had to lie in wet grass, at another to stay in a marshy area, almost up to their necks in water, so that the rushes might hide them.

Although they had plenty of tobacco they dared not smoke, for Sgt Birley says the smell of English tobacco would have been so distinctive that anyone with a keen sense of smell would have detected it almost a mile away, and then the game would soon have been up.

Once they were even accosted by some people whom they could not avoid, but the little German at Sgt Birley's command was sufficient to get over this encounter without anything untoward resulting. At another time, through a slight error of judgment which might, but did not, result unpleasantly, the two fugitives actually had to pass through a town, but who was to know that when he was apparently looking at his watch he was in fact looking at a compass to see in which direction the greatest chance of safety was to be found?

When the full story of their adventures comes to be told it will be found marvellous reading. On their arrival in England they reported themselves to the military authorities, and when they attended at Buckingham Palace on Saturday they were presented to his Majesty by Sir William Cust RN, who, it may be remembered, accompanied the King when he inspected troops at Luton Hoo some time since.

Sgt Birley should be a considerable acquisition to the list of speakers for next Saturday, and when the Mayor was informed that his assistance could probably be secured his Worship promptly sent an invitation. This Sgt Birley has been able to accept, as, though he had to report himself at his regimental depot this week, he is now on leave.

[The Luton News: Thursday, September 30th, 1915]