dyffryn aled hall German Prison Camp in rural North Wales

[Guest Berwyn]

1 - Llansannan is a small rural village on the edge of the Hiraethog Moors and 10 miles south of Abergele, on the North Wales coast.

2 - We are currently preparing a bid to the Heritage Lottery for a grant under their 1st World War budget.

3 - Our intention is to produce a Musical \ Drama primarily based on the prison for German High Ranking Naval Officers during WW1, in contrast to the tranquillity of life in a rural village.

4 - It was housed at Dyffryn Aled a large Estate House for the Wynne York family who ran out of money before the end of the 1900's.

5 - Two of the inmates were Wolf von Tirpitz, son of the Grand Admiral Tirpitz. Secretary of the Imperial Navy,  and also Herman Tholens. We do not have any other names;

6 - There were a number of attempted escapes, which makes interesting reading, but generally they were looked after really well, their main complaint was nothing to do, although they were allowed on to the lower meadow for sports. We are also told that they started a Male Voice Choir.

7 - What we are seeking, if possible, is to make contact with some of their descendants, to enquire if a few would like to come over to North Wales during our performance, which will be held sometime in May of 2017. It would be quite something that they could see where the camp was located and to meet the local people of the area and of course to enjoy our Musical\Drama based on life in our village at the time and the impact of a prison camp on our door step. We would also provide simultaneous  translation to individual head phones.

Can anyone help in locating the names of other captives, and how to locate desendants

Berwyn

[Kath]

The Daily Post has two more: Captains Heinrich von Henning and Hans von Heldorf.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/colditz-north-wales-how-denbighshire-9074558

 

Kath.

[Moonraker]

Graham Mark's Prisoners of War in British Hands during WWI names the following:

 

Captain Theodore Schlagintweit  (German consul in Manchester)

Lieutenant von Tirpitz, son  of the German admiral

Ober-Lt Hans Andler

Lt Hans Freidrcih Rudolf von Sanders Lieben

Major Ritter, Senior Army Officer

Captain Wallis, Senior Naval Officer

von Heldork and von Henning, as in post 2

Arped Horn no 261, Austrian officer

Lt W J E Petersen

Engineer Lt H F Burkhardt

Franz Laue

 

Findi9ng out more about the above and tracing their descendants could be challenging, with the exception of von Tirpitz!

 

Mark's book has four A4 pages devoted to the camp.

 

Good luck!

 

Moonraker

[Kath]

A search of the National Archives using  "Dyffryn Aled" has:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2617307

 

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2617406

 

and more.

 

Kath.