'To Major N. C. Kerr Commandant, Old Windmills Camp, Bicester to his retirement July 1946.'

Oil on panel by H. Rúsiring, 1946 (c).

This painting was given to Major Kerr in 1946 as a parting gift by German prisoners of war under his command. It shows the camp with the Nissen hut accommodation of the prisoners. Camp Number 653 at Old Windmills contained several hundred of the 400,000 German prisoners of war confined in Britain by 1946. Faced with a labour shortage, the government used them as a source of manpower. That year, around 20 percent of all farm work in Britain was being done by German prisoners, and they were also employed on road works and building sites.