"Nobody would tell you anything": the British Government and prisoner of war families during the Second World War

This article surveys the ways in which official information was communicated through the Foreign and War Office to the relatives and dependants of British prisonersof war during World War II and how, driven by apparently more successful"unofficial" channels, an imperative developed as the war proceeded to improvesystems of communication with prisoners' relatives and dependants. A detailedexamination of the methods used by state agency highlights both the exasperationexperienced by many ordinary civilians in their attempts to obtain official informationand the problems faced by the state in creating and maintaining reliablechannels of communication with both the Axis powers and the Japanese. The articledemonstrates how dissatisfaction with official channels led to an increasedrole for the charitable agencies such as the Red Cross and the Soldiers, Sailors andAir Force Families Association, together with the formation of local prisoner ofwar committees.