A British officer was freed from a German prisoner of war camp during the First World War to see his dying mother — and then kept his promise to the Kaiser and returned a week later.
Captain Robert Campbell, whose extraordinary adherence to a bygone code of honour has recently been discovered by a historian, was captured weeks after Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914.
After two years in Magdeburg prisoner of war camp, he received word from home that his mother, Louisa Campbell, was close to death.
On the suggestion of the camp commandant, he wrote to Kaiser Wilhelm II, begging to be allowed home to visit her one final time.
The Kaiser granted the request allowing Captain Campbell — a career