Description:There was a Prisoner of War Camp at Brocton Camp from 1917 to 1919. Five of the twenty Battalion Lines were used to house the German prisoners. Each Battalion Line had its own Cookhouse and there was a strict routine for mealtimes and working parties. The prisoners tended to eat in their own hut and the meals would have been collected or delivered.
In this group, besides the Cook and his assistants, there are a couple of Royal Army Medical Corps staff posing for the photograph so it could have been taken in Battalion Line "C" which was the 1000-bed hospital for the POWs. Some of the assistants could well be German soldiers. Most Cookhouses in the Camps tended to be set upon a concrete base and can be found in parts of Rugeley Camp but hardly any can be found around Brocton which may be due to the fact that Lord Lichfield wanted the area returned to a Grouse Moor.