By historian Alan Roberts

THE diminutive figure of Captain Horatio John Parkhurst dominates the opening sections of the German officers’ own account of their imprisonment at Skipton during the First World War.

Everyone had a nickname and Parkhurst’s nickname was ‘I-can-kill-you’.

Greeting the first officers to arrive at Skipton, Parkhurst adopted the character of a minor princeling and expected battle-hardened German officers to act with the demeanour of raw recruits in his presence.

In German eyes Parkhurst was both a figure of fun and at the same time very much a force to be reckoned with. Even the otherwise restrained voice of the German senior officer admitted that Parkhurst was too curious for his own good, but reluctantly conceded that after the Armistice, Parkhurst had acted above and beyond the call of duty for the benefit of the prisoners, especially during the ‘flu epidemic which claimed the lives of 47 officers and men.

The British authorities considered that Parkhurst was indispensable. Despite a number of serious health problems, a note in Parkhurst’s War Office file decided that he could not possibly be released from service.

Parkhurst was there when the German officers left Hull for Germany in 1919. He remarried and moved to his retirement home in the Welsh seaside town of Penarth where he joined a local Masonic Lodge and became a Freemason.

Parkhurst’s health problems eventually caught up with him and he passed away on New Year’s Day in 1926.

The story of the flight of the German airship Hindenburg down the Aire Valley as it returned home from America has been widely reported.

A package was dropped from the aircraft as it flew low over Keighley complete with a note asking whoever found it to lay a silver cross and some flowers on the grave of deceased flu victim and bomber commander Franz Schulte. The story was covered by many newspapers at the time. Indeed the Movietone newsreel ‘Hindenburg drops letter at Keighley’ can be viewed online today.

The tale came to the notice of former Skipton officer Lieutenant Gray who was only mentioned once in the entire 324 pages of the German prisoners’ account and that was because he conducted the more energetic German officers on their regular rambles outside the confines of the camp.

It is not the purpose of this article to delve into the mysteries of Freemasonry. Suffice it to say that Freemasons are expected to embark on a journey of personal growth and to be generous in giving time and money for the benefit of others.

Lieutenant W.R.H. Gray was the perfect embodiment of these values.

Born in Durham, Gray was to prove to be an important link between the historic city and its famous university. Gray eventually took over the reins of his father’s tailoring business which expanded into making robes and gowns for the university.

He became well-known in the city for his charitable work and despite his many commitments could always be relied upon to attend important occasions and events.

The range of his activities was vast: from providing soup kitchens for the local poor during times of industrial strife to organising a massive carnival to raise money to help prevent Durham’s ancient castle from slipping down into the River Wear below.

Gray was also a magistrate and became the city’s mayor in 1935.

This was at a time when many feared German rearmament and the threat of a new world war under German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

On hearing the news of the Hindenburg’s flight, Gray reported that he had grown to like the German prisoners and had had many interesting conversations with the deceased German lieutenant.

When Schulte died, Lieutenant Gray was in charge of the firing party which fired a volley over the grave. He intended to write to Schulte’s family and tell them of his friendship and ask to be put in touch with some of the other German officers.

Sadly Gray died on the opening night of the Durham Miners’ Gala before he was able to do this.

The third Freemason was a talented student who excelled at languages including Hebrew and became an expert on Old Testament history.

Indeed he wrote a book on the development of thoughts about justice at the time of the prophets. A copy of this book was recently found in a library at the University of Leeds.

The author apologised for the lack of an index, but explained that he had called up to fight for his kaiser against the British. Willi Cossmann decided not to pursue an academic career, but instead chose to become a schoolteacher in the town of Spandau near Berlin.

He served on the eastern front during the First World War and received his Iron Cross from the hands of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg himself.

Cossmann was later transferred to the western front and was captured by the British at Cambrai along with many other Skipton prisoners.

At Raikeswood Camp, Cossmann was heavily involved with the education of young German officers who had joined the army straight from school without completing the German equivalent of ‘A’ levels.

A total of 16 young men passed their exams there thanks to the efforts of Cossmann and others. Along with Senior German Officer Fritz Sachsse, Cossmann co-edited the German memoir Kriegsgefangen in Skipton.

Returning to civilian life as a teacher, Cossmann became a Freemason in the late 1920s. Unfortunately Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialists, had written of his hatred of Freemasonry in his book Mein Kampf. When the Nazis came to power it was decreed that all Masonic Lodges should either close or be closed.

To Cossmann’s credit he was one of a small group who were there to reopen the Masonic Lodge in Spandau at the end of the Second World War.

Cossmann eventually became one of the two national heads of his organisation and guided it through a merger with another Masonic Grand Lodge.

Previous members of Cossmann’s Grand Lodge had included two German emperors, Wilhelm I and Friedrich III, the landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich and the Prussian Field Marshal Blücher whose arrival at the end of the day secured victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

A schoolteacher from a grammar school in Spandau had certainly joined some very distinguished company.