HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2018
One interesting pair of internees are Frederick Parker Dunbar and his son Frederick Lewis Dunbar - the former being a retired German naval captain, who was lucky not to have been shot as a spy, whereas his son was a 26 year old, pretending to be 16, who had come to England just prewar to improve his English, though his better claim to notice is that he left a book, published in 1940, about his internment, including stays at Knockaloe and Douglas camps.
Dunbar is a Scottish name - the father is usually noted as of American/Scottish-German descent, who became a naturalised German to join the German Imperial navy; his son, seeking escape from internment, claimed his grandfather was a naturalised American citizen. However, a somewhat cursory search of the 1870 US Census fails to find him. Dunbar junior also states that his father had joined as a midshipman (Seekadett) alongside Prince Heinrich of Prussia with whom he sailed around the world aboard SMS Prinz Adalbert (1940:9). Prince Heinrich was 16 when he became a midshipman, which would have been in 1878. If Frederick Patrick Dunbar followed the same date-line, he too would have been 16 in 1878, and 37 in 1898/9, when he was in command of SMS Möwe. His son Frederick was born in Wilhemshaven, the German Naval base for the North Sea and Atlantic, in 1888. His brother, Patrick, was born in Kiel, the German naval base for the Baltic (there was also a sister Stella born in 1892, though where is not known). Frederick junior identifies his mother as Elisabeth Dunbar née Block (1866-1931), who was also the mother of Patrick Dunbar (1892-1970) who becames a noted artist of North German seascapes (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_von_Kalckreuth).
Frederick senior had risen in the ranks, and in 1898/9 was in command of SMS Möwe, a timbered cruiser, engaged at that time on survey work in New Guinea and the surrounding waters. The duties aboard Möwe were monotonous, and Johannes Wilda (1852-after 1923), a journalist and author logging their voyage, considered the ship's timbers to be riddled with tropical diseases (for which reason many in the service referred to the ship as 'an old crate'. Wilda describes the ship thus:
[p3] I left the harbour of Hong Kong on board S.M.S. Möwe, a German special-purpose survey vessel, with the kindly-sponsored intention of carrying out a study journey to the Bismarck Archipelago. The Möwe ['seagull'] was a timbered cruiser of only 845 tons displacement. The 'malicious world' called her an 'old crate'. However, we had previously been with her in Kowloon Dock, from which we emerged very spick and span indeed, so spick and span that every man on board was filled with pride at the little white ship, on whose protruding bow our golden heraldic bird hung in all its splendour. The commander, Corvette-Captain D.[Dunbar], experienced old seaman that he was, had additionally ordered the graceful three-mast schooner to be further embellished by having its topmast re-rigged; and, without a word of flattery, to external eyes we looked just like a darling little pleasure-yacht.
[p5] To my satisfaction, the Captain had decided that, instead of steaming on through to Ternate in the Moluccas, first to call at Manila, which is still at the forefront of political events. One reason for us to do this came from our having no ice, despite having many sick men aboard, some of them serious cases. While Möwe did have a refrigeration plant, this had shown itself to be unusable and beyond repair. All attempts to obtain a refrigerator in Hong Kong had failed, and so the Captain considered it his duty to ask S.M.S Königin Augusta, which had gone to Manila, for the provision of a refrigerator, or failing that, to supply us with fresh ice. Just imagine what it means for a ship, for its sick men in particular, and for the doctor who had responsibility for them, to go out into the South Seas without adequate care in this matter!
The Möwe had already for many years served as a survey ship for New Guinea and neighbourhood. As such it had to carry out monotonous duty on hot, unhealthy coasts and had from time to time to anchor for extended periods, rolling heavily in the swell. The strenuous work on the boat and on land really does take it out of your body. On land, too, there was nothing to cheer anybody up; the dangerous climate forbade any leave. So the thing for now was to hang on in the paralysing, damp heat, crowded very close together, on monotonous, not always pleasant, food. Often, too, fever is aboard, which really puts a damper on one's mood. From this, you can imagine that survey voyages are no pleasure trips, all the less so, if the ship and its facilities are no longer up to the desired standard. - And thoughts were that pathogens had infested elderly wooden ship, in closets and other places; A bad, damp, fungus-like smell did actually come out at all times from the shelves of some of the lockers; so, for this reason, I made the head-end of my berth into its foot-end.
Wilda continues (pp. 5-9):
Under these tropical circumstances, Captain Dunbar began to show increasing signs of anxiety, which were greater than they had been in his first year of command, when he was in full physical health. Fever was rampant, and the Möwe's Pay Master and First Officer had already become ill, forcing Captain Dunbar to leave them ashore at Hong Kong.
Captain Dunbar returned in 1899 with an undisclosed tropical illness, which, according to his son caused him to retire from the Navy - his pay in the Navy would have been miserable both before and after retirement, which probably led Elisabeth Dunbar to find a sponsor for her children. There entered at this point the rich (probably) Government Lawyer, Richard von Kalckreuth (an old military family), born in 1878. So off she went in that direction, possibly even while Capt Dunbar was at sea in the Far East. Elisabeth and the Captain divorced probably around 1908. His divorce and remarriage must have come about well before July 1915; however, Elisabeth did not marry Richard von K until just a few months before her death in 1931 - later (1935), Richard von K formally adopted her sons allowing them legally to add the 'von K' to their names, though Frederick junior seems to have adopted his step-father's name some time prior to this, using plain Dunbar or Dunbar von K as it suited him. As early as his two books of 'Walks through Rome' (1925), which he had published as 'Dunbar von Kalckreuth' or 'Fr. Lewis Dunbar von Kalckreuth'. It was presumably his step-father who opened doors for him in the upper echelons of German society.
According to Frederick junior his father had, at the outbreak of war, volunteered to help the German Secret Service and had gone to Scotland to determine the location of the British Grand fleet and had located it in the Orkneys, but he had been betrayed, and was imprisoned at Inverness on 20 October 1914, after which he was twice brought to London, threatened on each occasion with execution by firing-squad in the Tower of London. Hence, his father's life had 'hung by a thread' (1940:10). He had to undergo several strict interrogations, but no evidence was gleaned to put him on trial as a spy, so in default he was placed in an internment camp for the duration of the war (www.scotlandswar).
Though few official records of the IoM Internment camps survive, the admissions and discharge register of the Douglas Camp is one notable exception - this records that Frederick Parker Dunbar was received at Douglas Camp from Wakefield on 27 September 1915. Noted in records as 'Austrian', he was temporarily transferred to Scotland Yard, leaving Douglas Camp on 19 October 1915, under escort, to travel to London to see Mr. Basil Thomson (1861-1939) of New Scotland Yard, at that time head of the CID and later known as a spy-catcher. He was received back at Douglas Camp on 15 November 1915 - the register records 'Received at Douglas Camp from Wandsworth Prison 16.11.1915' - Frederick junior claims to have sighted him on 15th November 1915 (1940:9). The entry in the camp register then states he was 'Transferred from Douglas Camp, under escort, to Stratford 21 Oct.1916 for repatriation' - however there would appear to be some possible later change of permission as he is named on a list of prisoners over 45 years of age whose repatriation is not to take place without special instructions from Govt. Office. [G.O. Letter 5612.W./78/3 10.1.1917.] and a later entry in the Douglas camp register is for a Fredk Parker Dunbar received at Douglas from Knockaloe on the 11th Nov.1916 and given Douglas camp number 4733 - the corresponding exit indicated in the Knockaloe daily count is that he was one of a party of nine transferred to Douglas the other eight being to the Jewish camp and that he was held in camp 2 whilst at Knockaloe - the Douglas register shows a transfer from Douglas Camp to Spalding on the 15th April 1918 for Internment in Holland. There are two internees transferred to camp 2 from Stratford on the 24th October 1916 (probable arrival late 23rd) and a further 4 from Stratford on 1st Nov 1916.
Capt Dunbar was described by one source (www.scotlandswar) as 'one of the most mysterious characters to be dealt with in the early days of the war - he was a German naval officer, who was found wandering around Scotland in 1914. Dunbar was not German born. He was of American origin and had served twenty-one years in the German Navy. According to his own story he had recently resigned from the Navy and had come to Great Britain for the purpose of seeing his son, a boy of sixteen who was being educated in this country. But there were circumstances connected with the case which seemed to preclude Dunbar's story being true. He was carrying a false passport in the name of William Gulden, which was enough to condemn him in the eyes of most, as people whose intentions are straightforward do not need to carry false passports in the time of war.'
Determining Capt Dunbar's activities between 1899 and 1914 has so far proved impossible - his story of coming to Britain to visit his 16 year old son (who was in reality 26) shows obvious collusion between father and son - Frederick junior comments that family meetings were not allowed in the camp, and makes no other comment, other than to report that when he himself had been repatriated in 1918 there was a letter from his step-mother, informing him that his father had survived the war and was as well as could be expected. However, Frederick junior does dedicate his 1940 book to his father, and not his step-father, Richard.
There is a record of a 'Fred K' Received at Douglas Camp 27.9.1915 from Wakefield Camp. Transfer was done at short notice, because he was suspected of being implicated in some plot to escape. He joined the privileged Camp (MD 15028/1 (MS 06465) 27.9.1915). The date and origination match those of the first record re Capt Dunbar. Other Germans were shot for spying on similar evidence such as false passports. Scotlandswar suggests it was poor interrogation at Inverness that allowed him to survive. If so, then a near month long interrogation by Scotland Yard would also seem to have been poor - a cover story is one explanation.
The story now turns to Frederick junior
Frederick junior was pretending to be a 16-year-old schoolboy on a summer course at Hillcrest School, Hastings, Kent. The deception sat badly with him, for each time he was questioned by police about his age, he had to recalculate it:
'When the officer was checking up my personal details, I was so nervous that I suddenly stuttered, because I couldn't calculate the year I was born in if I added nine years to my true date of birth. He peered at me, it seemed to me with the superior expression of a connoisseur, all set to trip me up in some jolly way. But the whole thing turned out to be nothing more than having my finger-print taken. However, it did give me a peculiar feeling in my stomach' (1940:38; of Hastings, October 1914).
After this he was allowed to remain at relative liberty though restricted to 5 miles from his registered address - initially lodging in London with a friend of his mother and later with a Mrs Pay but after the sinking of the Lusitania he was interned at Alexandra Palace. He describes his transfer, along with other internees, from Alexandra Palace by special train to Liverpool Riverside station and then by IoMSPCo's vessel Tynwald to Douglas - though he gives no day though his comments suggest 1st or 2nd November 1915 but the Knockaloe daily count suggests 9/10th October 1915 - unfortunately the corresponding register for Knockaloe camp has not survived, so no confirmation of the arrival at Knockaloe is available other than this is the only large party transfered in this period. . However he was not held at Knockaloe for long as he had access to sufficient funds to request a transfer to the Douglas privilige camp - the entry in the Douglas Admission register has an entry for a Fred Leo v. Kalkreuth [sic] on the 15th Nov 1915 given camp number 4087 [later over written 4088 with changes to following 2 entries such that there were two 4089s indicating some confusion] - the entry indicates a transfer to Spalding on the 18th April 1918 for internment in Holland.
The time spent in the internment camps, especially Knockaloe, is covered elsewhere - a more critical discussion of his account is in preparation.
No marriage has been found for Frederick junior and no known children.
After his two books of 'Walks through Rome' (1925), the next major work of Frederick L. Dunbar (so styled) came in 1935, in the form of a life of Queen Christine of Sweden (1626-1689), which he dedicated to his mother, 'Elisabeth Dunbar von Kalckreuth', while in 1937 he dedicated his 'Book of a Thousand Facts' to his father, 'Dr. Richard von Kalckreuth'. As early as his two books of 'Walks through Rome' (1925), Frederick Lewis had revealed himself to be contemptuous of the Bolshevists, and a fervent admirer of the Fascist Legions of Mussolini's new-model Italy, which, while moving on to new architectural forms, also conserved the best of the old (1925b:269). When these ideas on architecture were transferred to Germany, 'F.L. Dunbar-von Kalckreuth' wrote (1937:322; German-language original):
German architecture is undergoing a new ascendancy, and in its turn reflects the essential spirit that inspires the Third Reich. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Breslau are to be developed systematically and exemplarily as external evidence of the great epoch of our nation's resurgence, as proclaimed by the Führer on the 30th of January 1937. This new German Style, which we already admire in individual buildings, such as those on the Königlicher Platz in Munich, at the Ministry of Aviation in Berlin, and also those about to be shown in the Deutsches Haus of the Paris International Exposition of 1937, is characterised by perfectly shaped structure, clarity and practical beauty.
But some of his writings also had an ulterior motive, as becomes apparent in 'Everybody's Book of Facts',1 which, perhaps unwittingly, divulges in his entry for the Rhine-Main-Danube Waterway, due for completion in 1945 (1939:529, English-language original):
The industrial importance of the Rhine-Main-Danube connexion can hardly be over-estimated, since it will link up the heart of Germany with Yugoslavia, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria and Greece, enabling the Third Reich quickly and cheaply to obtain food, oil and industrial raw materials from those countries in return for manufactured goods. It will make an effective blockade of Germany virtually impossible.
F.L. Dunbar-Kalckreuth, Die Männerinsel.
Leipzig: List, 1940.
Johannes Wilda Reise auf S.M.S. Möwe Streifzüge in Südseekolonien und Ostasien von mit 19 Vollbildern
und einer Karte. Zweite Auflage.Berlin: Allgemeiner Verein für Deutsche Litteratur, Berlin 1903.
reprinted Neudruck von Vero Verlag, Norderstedt, Germany, 2014
[= Voyage on His Imperial Majesty's Ship "Seagull". Expeditions in the South Seas Colonies and East Asia by Johannes
Wilda, with 19 full illustrations and one map. General Association for German Literature, Berlin 1903.
Reprint by Vero Publishing, Norderstedt, Germany, 2014, pp296]
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