German Prisoners at Stobs Internment Camp (near Hawick) in Global Context, 1914-1919

During World War I, Stobs military training ground near Hawick was used as a mass internment camp for 4,500 prisoners; German civilian ‘enemy aliens’ who had settled in Britain before 1914 and were considered potential spies, civilian passengers and sailors from captured enemy ships, and military prisoners-of-war captured in Europe or at sea.

Stobs was the parent camp for a network of further facilities across Scotland and Northern England.

Although the majority of internees were German, there were some Austrians and some Turks.

There’s a free conference next summer about the Stobs camp, an opportunity to hear experts who have researched Stobs as well as camps in England, the Isle of Man, Ireland and others around the world, to see camp artefacts and perhaps to identify them, and visit the site with the Council’s archaeology officer, Dr Christopher Bowles.

If you have family members that worked at Stobs, or you’re descended from someone who was interned in one of the camps, I think you’ll find this conference especially interesting. Dr Bowles would also like to hear from anyone that has memorabilia relating to the camp.

Provisional programme.

The conference is on 18th and 19th June 2016 at Hawick. If you would like to attend, I suggest you register now at archives@scotborders.gov.uk

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To celebrate Easter, Ancestry are offering free access to some of their collections at Easter (from 00:00 on 18 April until 23:59 on 21 April).

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    1901 Scotland Census
    1901 Wales Census
    1911 Channel Islands Census
    1911 Channel Islands Census Summary Books
    1911 England Census
    1911 England Census Summary Books
    1911 Isle of Man Census
    1911 Isle of Man Census Summary Books
    1911 Wales Census Updated!
    1911 Wales Census Summary Books Free Index
    British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
    British Army WWI Pension Records 1914-1920
    British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920
    England & Wales, Birth Index, 1916-2005
    England & Wales, Death Index, 1916-2007
    England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 Free Index
    England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915 Free Index
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    England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1916-2005
    England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

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