Photograph of Ernest Tempest and a carved wooden jewellery box with an inscription underneath: Prisoners of War, Michael Müller
Ernest Tempest, grandfather of the contributor (who would prefer to remain anonymous), went to South Africa circa 1900/01 and returned in 1906. He married Amelia Oates in 1908. He was an engineer but according to the 1911 census was a joiner. The contributor knows that he went to Carlisle and had something to do with the German prisoners of war in that town but doesn't know why he wasn't called up. Hed died in in 1922 or 1923 of diabetes. Ernest gave Amelia a carved wooden jewellery box, which was subsequently passed on to the contributor. On the base is inscribed: Prisoners of War, Michael Müller. The contributor doesn't know if this was given to her grandfather by a prisoner of war. The contributor says her granfather was a gentle person and was told he left South Africa because he didn't like the way black people were treated.