Isle of Man camp First World War

[Nels56]

I have just found out that my great grandfather was interned on the Isle of Man at the start of the First World War. He was Austrian by birth and married to an Englishwoman they had 9 children together. Apparently many of those interned were deported back to their birth countries in 1919, even if they were married to English women, it appears that these records have been lost probably during bombing in the Second World War. Does anyone have any ideas on how I may find out if he was deported back to Austria or died in the camp? I have been unable to locate a death for him in England. Thank you.

[Colin Rowledge]

I wish you luck with this one.

My wife's grandfather - Ferdinand Darrer - was also Austrian - and interned in the Isle of Man. He was aged 43 when interned. They produced 5 children prior to 1914. After the war a 6th was born - my wife's mother - and the family continued to live in Belfast.

From what my wife has discovered, he wasn't treated badly in the camps in the I.o.M and towards the end of the war, conjugal visits were allowed, so her mother was conceived on such an occasion and was born 20 March 1919.

Prior to his death - c. 1938 - he took his wife to Austria for a visit to his homeland, since she had never visited. After his death, because of this visit earlier, she was treatened with internment during the next conflict, but this never happened - she was almost 60 at the time.

Colin

[Nels56]

Thank you for the good wishes! I do not think that his wife and children ever saw him again. Two of the children went to Canada as British Home Children, they were deemed to be deserted children...... It appears that the extended family took on some of the children but as there were a large number but 3 of them were registered with the Fulham Board of Schools etc. It is unbelievable that she was threatened with internment during WW2 because of the visit.

Elaine

[gasser]

Not too sure but this page I found might help you..... [www] isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/famhist/genealgy/intern.htm.
There is an address given for burial records of internees who died at Knockaloe, the main camp on the island.

[Elwyn Soutter]

It is unbelievable that she was threatened with internment during WW2 because of the visit.

Until the 1948 British Nationality Act, when a British woman married an alien (eg an Austrian), she automatically lost her British Nationality. So, far from the marriage securing his right to stay in the UK, in those days it actually undermined her own. (In theory the wife was expected to go and live in her husband's country). In the 1930s she was probably travelling on an Austrian passport. All “Austrians” were required to register with the police sometime around the outbreak of war, and so that nationality, rather than the visit to Austria, was probably why she was interviewed and screened to see whether she should be interned. However her UK birth probably meant she was categorized as low risk.

[Coromandel]

Over on the Great War Forum, Terry Denham mentioned back in 2004 a list of '40,000 foreign nationals' whose graves/memorials were in the care of the CWGC. The list isn't part of the CWGC online database but Terry had access to it and did some look-ups for Isle of Man graves:

https://
1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10933

The thread goes on to mention other potentially useful sources for research.

You could also try searching for a death on the Manx BMD website:

https://www.
manxbmd.com/cgi-bin/db.cgi?do=search_form;db=deaths

(Though the title on the search page says 'Search for Deaths (to 1911)', the home page says 'The complete index from 1877 to 1979 for Island deaths have just been uploaded to the database.')

[Nels56]

Thank you all so much for your help. I will investigate further.

Elaine

[cicilysmith]

Several articles about the camp have appeared in magazines from the Anglo-German FHS. cicilysmith