German prisoners of war, one in drag, propose a toast during a performance at Leigh prisoner of war camp, Lancashire. Photographic postcard by H. Attenborough, 191-.

The man in drag is hoisted up in the centre of the stage, as lots of male characters lift their tankards. At the start of 1914 the Lilford Weaving Company began building a new mill in Leigh, Lancashire. But when the First World War broke out, half of the completed mill buildings were taken over by the British Government. In 1915 they were turned into a prisoner of war camp to house captured German servicemen. This is one of a series of postcards produced for German prisoners to send home: it shows a group re-enacting the popular German operetta 'Alt Heidelberg' by Wilhelm Meyer-Förster