Turkish Naval Officer POW Held in the UK

[John Beech]

Afternoon All

 

I have been asked to help with some research as to possible Ottoman naval officers held POW in the UK. A photo has surfaced which appears to show an Ottoman officer held in a British camp but their is no further detail as to who he might be. I tried to look at the ICRC records but without a name, the search facility doesn't offer any help. Anyone know of any Ottoman naval officers held in the UK and secondly any names that I could use to start a more detailed search on the ICRC records?

 

Thank you in anticipation

 

John

Edited 3 June , 2018 by John Beech

[michaeldr]

see https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/prisoners_of_war_and_internees_great_britain

 

quote from the above:

"Officers' camps emerged as the war progressed, most famously at Donington Hall in Derbyshire, which attracted much negative attention in the House of Commons and the British press because of its allegedly luxurious conditions. A large, old castle dating from the 17^th century, surrounded by a lovely old park, it opened as a camp at the beginning of 1915. In June 1916 it held 102 military officers, thirty-nine naval officers, fifty military orderlies and one naval orderly, and three civilians. Of these ninety-eight army officers and thirty-eight naval officers were German, four army officers were Austrian, and one naval officer was a Turk while all of the civilians and orderlies were German. Other officers' camps included Dyffryn Aled, Holyport, Kegworth and Colsterdale."

 

Good luck

Michael

[John Beech]

Michaeldr

 

Thanks for your prompt reply, it is actually that officer I am trying to trace!! I have been approached by a photographers based in Derby who during the war appear to have been taking photos on a commercial basis at camps in the Midlands, specifically Donington Hall and Kegworth. I was invited to look at some of the photos yesterday which include two photos of an officer whose appearance leads us to believe he is that Turkish officer, unfortunately, there are no captions with the photos and although records are held dating the photos and negative numbers, they don't have names!

 

My usual fall back option is to search the ICRC records but without a name its difficult to search. The alternative is to look for Germans at Donington and see if he appears on one of the registers.

 

Regards

 

John

[michaeldr]

There's a letter/report from the US embassy to a Mr Page (at the FO) on 24, June 1916

see https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086698795;view=1up;seq=41

which refers to this prisoner, however no name is given

 

[John Beech]

Hi Michael

 

I shall have a look

 

Thanks

 

John

[John Beech]

Afternoon All

 

Turns out the Turkish prisoner was a Commander Hakim

 

Regards

 

John

[michaeldr]

Well done John!

Where did that info come from

and can you tell us anything more about Commander Hakim and his service?

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, michaeldr said:

Well done John!

Where did that info come from

and can you tell us anything more about Commander Hakim and his service?

 

Ditto-John    There is likely to be material on Commander Hakim in the Foreign Office files in the series FO383-which deals with Prisoner of War matters.  There are several likely looking files popping up on "Discovery", the TNA search engine. However, the likeliest source of a bit more info is the printed sets of FO indexes-done year by year- in which his name might appear.

   I expect the 1 Turkish prisoner noted above is your man-with the caveat that a "British camp" is not the same as a"camp in Britain"- a graze of Discovery, for instance, shows that Turkish officer prisoners were kept at Malta.at least, and there would have been others in Egypt and -certainly-at Basra.

The trick now is to find which year and how captured- I can look up the FO printed vols. when next at Kew.

 

(By way of "vice versa"- a little family tale-My grandfather was a black-haired CPO, RN at Gallipoli- he went onshore from his ship on some official errand and was arrested as a Turkish spy due to his dark complexion.) Your man should show up- at a guess I would say he was taken POW early on in the war.

[Guest]

Mate,

 

Thank you, very interesting to see what you find.

 

While I have many Ottoman officers around the Med (Malta Egypt adn other places) as Pow's and as far away as Burma. I have none shown as being in Britain

 

Cheers

S,.B

[seaJane]

If anyone is seriously stuck I know a FCO archivist...

[Guest]

Mates,

 

Its been a while, but a Turkish mate sent me this, from a film held at the IWM.

 

Sorry I tried to check it out but does not work for me, maybe you will have better luck?

 

He is Naval Staff officer Ahmet Hakim Bey.
rank unknown may be yüzbaşı Leutnant zur See 
we see him on 4:17 in a very short period
https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/record/3183
I could find no more

 

Ottoman officers of all services were attached to the German military, either Army, navy and air force for period's during the war. while I could not find him for sure this man comes the closest so far.

 

Bon chance

 

S.B

Edited 10 January , 2019 by stevebecker