Prisoners of war - whose experiences in the UK, Germany, the Far East and further afield have shaped our understanding of life in captivity during both world wars - are the focus of a two-day conference at Cambridge University beginning October 30.

Behind Barbed Wire: the experience of POW internment during WWI and WWII, is being run by the University's Institute of Continuing Education at Madingley Hall.

During both world wars hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and civilian men, women, children and even babies, were interned by their enemies.

The University's conference, which takes place during a residential weekend at Madingley Hall, will use case studies developed in conjunction with POW communities to illuminate everything from escape tunnels, bedbugs and the abuses of POWs - via stories that remain largely unknown and untold.

Cambridge University's Dr Gilly Carr said: "Many of the former POWs I work with, who were interned as children, tell me that their parents were affected by internment for the rest of their lives. They lived and breathed their camp experiences into their old age. For some, internment had a positive outcome, in that they learned or discovered new skills during captivity which enabled new career paths on their release. More work needs to be done on the life of POWs after their release."

Dr Carr, who is developing the concept of POW archaeology through her own research with POW communities, will speak on the Red Cross's involvement with Channel Islander camps in Germany.

She added: "All seven speakers at the conference have worked closely with those kept behind barbed wire during the world wars; their first-hand experiences informs much of our work and understanding.

"My own interest is in the art and artefacts made while in captivity and how these tell the story of deportation and interment during the Second World War.

"The aim of the weekend is to show, explore and discuss the experiences of prisoners of war in Germany, the Far East and also the UK, looking at how similar - and different - those experiences are."

Case studies during the weekend are wide ranging in terms of geography and chronology, as well as balancing the perspectives of military and civilian personnel.

The line-up of speakers is as follows:

Bernie Archer (A patchwork of internment; the women's perspective of internment in the Far East, 1941-5).

Gilly Carr (Surviving civilian internment with help from the Red Cross; a case study from the Channel Islander camps in Germany, 1942-45).

Yvonne Creswell (A cultural melting pot: the Isle of Man and its internment camps in two world wars).

Peter Doyle (Klim tins and bed boards; stalag life, myths and reality).

Kent Fedorowich (The uses and abuses of prisoners of war, 1939-1947).

Nicholas Saunders (Trapped in shells: mindset and materiality in Great War trench art).

Philip Towle (Japanese culture and the treatment of allied POWs in the Second World War).

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)