stobbs internment camp

[fi.w]

my gggrandad christian sieler(german subject),was interned at stobbs camp,scotland,age 59,for the duration of the war.

his liverpool born sons all fought in the war,one,christian seiler,died at ginchy 9/9/16.and poor gggrandad christian never went home,as he contracted tb in the camp,and was put into brownlowhill woorkhouse/new hospital,liverpool.where he died.

if any one knows where i should be looking for records(if there are any?)of inmates,and could direct me i would be soooooo greatful!

i think possibly stobbs was still being used as a training camp when he first whent there,but believe it then took german pows eventually.(not sure if internees where moved when pow moved in).

any help or info greatly recieved....x

thankyou.

[Moonraker]

See here for a little about the camp.

There are also several pages about Stobs (one "b") in Prisoners of War in British Hands during WWI by Graham mark (Postal History Society 2007). The POW camp is said to have opened on August 22, 1914 with accommodation that eventually could hold 5,960. The first PoWs arrived in early November. The Scotsman of November 3 reported that the first German prisoners to be interned at Stobs had arrived the previous afternoon. Note that pedantically there should be a difference between prisoners (servicemen) and internees (civilians.) There is a slightly ambiguous reference to 1250 civilians arriving from Liverpool, apparently in May 1915. Civilians were moved to Knockaloe in July 1916.

A camp newspaper was published under various titles; copies of the earlier issues produced by the civilians are very scarce.

I would put the chances of finding records of individual inmates as very slim - but one never knows.

Moonraker

[fi.w]

Thanks for that Moonraker.

[IPT]

I thought i'd add this picture taken in Anfield Cemetery.

Clearly his family were not happy about his treatment.

[redbarchetta]

Fairly understandable grievance...! Presumably his sons were born in England, hence being able to join the British army rather than being interned themselves. You would have thought that the authorities could have made exceptions for cases where the individual's own offspring were in the British Army - how likely was he to begin spying for the enemy of his sons??...

James

[fi.w]

Ah,thanks James,GGgrandad didn't have a grave stone, the cross was erected two years ago, by another distant family relative,John.He married his wife here in Liverpool 1888, and all the children were born here. I'd heard about his internment fom my grandad,but that was all. Through discovering other family members like John, searching the family on ancestry, more info was uncoverd, and a family member in Australia had postcards,Christian had sent from Stobbs. After the wonderful help of people on this site, we found out were Pte Christian Seiler, he died, indeed the picture I use, is the first we ever saw of Christian,(thanks to Promenade). I think John thought it only fitting to have them rememberd together.

[Guest Mudsweatandblood]

Hi Fiona,

I'm new to this forum - but not to family and military history - and I was fascinated to see the back story to the fate of Christian Seiler. I was aware of his WW1 death owing to my own link to the Seilers (my mother's family) and my general research into this rare (in the UK at least !) family name. My great-grandfather was Albert Seiler, born in London in 1879, who was the grandson of a German immigrant. Unlike in your own family, Albert had already made moves to anglicize his surname prior to WW1 with a change to Syler and then lastly to the more English sounding Siler. Under that named he served from 1915-19 with various regiments and fought under Allenby in the Eastern campaign. Apparently, he even came across German POWs using the original spelling of his surname but I guess he kept that coincidence to himself at the time. My grandfather also recalled that during WW1 - although he was aware of his distant German roots - that such was anti-German feeling (at least in the rougher parts of London!) that he and other young lads took part in window-smashing raids against any shops with a Germanic sounding surname above the door (ironic to say the least and not our family's proudest moment!). I shall be posting a fuller synopsis of Albert's WW1 career at a later date but if in the meantime I can help at all with military or Seiler family tree queries please contact me.

Cheers

Dave