Who were the Internees?
When war broke out in August 1914, there were thousands of German, Austrian, Hungarian and Turkish civilians living in Britain. As citizens of enemy nations, they were seen as possible spies, traitors and threats. The Aliens Restriction Act of 5 August 1914 gave the British government the power to control them.
There were all sorts of reasons why internees found themselves in Britain at the outbreak of the war. Some were on holiday. Some of the ‘enemy aliens’ were army reservists, who might be called up to become soldiers in Germany, or soldiers captured in colonial territories such as those in Africa. However, many were ordinary working men who had made Britain their permanent home. Some of these had lived in Britain since childhood, had British families and only spoke English.
By 23 September 10,500 of them had been arrested and they were beginning to arrive on the Isle of Man to spend the war in captivity there. During the war, up to 29,000 internees were kept imprisoned on the Isle of Man.
The internees included:
