Stobs Camp

Introduction

This initial report on a visit to Stobs on 30th October 1915 was made by Col W.C. Jackson, a later report dated February 1916 is also available . The Camp had been opened as a Military training camp in1903 - the first internees (Civilian) started to arrive early in the war though Mr J Jackson of the American Embassy, writing in late February 1915 apologises for not including this camp in his list of camps visited in early 1915 giving reasons as travel difficulties and that it held only 300 internees (all civilian - no combatants) at the time. Stobs is some five miles from Hawick itself some 50 miles north of Carlisle and 72 miles south east of Edinburgh, at this time there was a railway linking these two places, like Knockaloe a special spur was later laid to ease transport of goods. Murray, presumably based on the local paper, notes that the first party of internees arrived on a Monday afternoon in early November 1914 - one arrival, no.62 is indicated as arriving on the 2nd November 1915. Troop training at the camp continued through the war in other parts of the camp.

The civilian section of the camp was closed in early July 1916 with some 2,000 internees transferred to Knockaloe where they were distributed between the four camps. As the WW1 internee records held in the UK have been lost, research into names, arrival patterns etc. have to rely on the now digitised records held by the I.C.R.C. - these mostly comprise weekly lists of internees with varying amount of information - early records give little other than name, age, place of birth and sometimes place of residence in UK - later records started to indicate which camp they were in and later records still, started to give their camp internee number as well as the central PoWIB index number. Unfortunately Stobs civilian camp was closed before the use of camp numbers in the lists sent to the I.C.R.C. had been adopted. This removes the easy approach to tracking entries as all camps allocated their camp numbers in sequence and numbers were not re-used.

There are a few (22 so far found) records held in the various lists that purport to give entry date into the camp and the camp number on exit - these would indicate that a large party of internees arrived on 21st April 1915 (i.e. pre Lusitania) with another 600 in following 2 weeks, with a further 1200+ by end of July reaching near the capacity of 4800 by end of September 1915 which is consistent with Col Anderson's report of late October 1915. Murray quoting the Hawick Express and Advertiser of 16th April 1915 which had "We understand that about 780 additional German Prisoners are expected to arrive.at Stobs Camp on Wednesday first [April 21st]" which confirms the arrival date found the records as well as the large party indicated by the somewhat sparse I.C.R.C. records.

Stobs was unusual in initially holding both civilian internees and combatant prisoners - the hospital facilities described in the 1916 report are compatible with the expected use by combatant prisoners many of whom would have been wounded. Judging from the early issues of the camp newspaper there was a fair amount of social mixing (eg football matches) between the two groups. However as the PoWIB maintained a common index for both civilian and military it further complicates determining arrival patterns. It is likely that the first, relatively small group came from Redford Camp, Edinburgh, which closed on the 2nd of November 1915 - its records were transferred to Stobs though it seems most of the internees went elsewhere - Newbury is named as one destination; an earlier party from Redford had been transferred to Douglas in October 1915.

This large, pre-Lusitania, group of 780 civilian internees must have come from another camp (or camps) - from the sparse details available it would seem to include some who had a Scottish or north of England address noted in the records but the majority had only German address - one source is probably the civilians detained off German vessels passing the North of Scotland who were brought to Edinburgh and then to Stobs, such internees continued to be seen in the records until the civilian camp closed.

Initial investigation of the I.C.R C. records would indicate that around mid-May 1915 a significant number of German and Austrians from Liverpool were noted as being held at Stobs - many of these were in their late 50s or 60s and would not normally be considered as possible combatants. Again a quote from the Hawick Express and Advertiser of 21st May 1915 "One Hundred and Fifty Germans from Manchester have arrived. These are men who had offered themselves for internment after their business premises had been wrecked..." - actually these would correspond to a second batch, the first of similar size, all had a Liverpool address. Liverpool saw considerable damage to German owned property - also being a port town it became a prohibited area for German citizen to reside - it was probably this latter reason that saw sixty and seventy year olds interned though their military value was negligeable and many even had sons fighting at the front.

Text

REPORT ON STOBS INTERNMENT CAMP
by
Colonel W. C Anderson,

On Saturday, October 30th. 1915, I visited the Military Internment Camp at Stobs and saw the Commandant, Col. Bowman, who, being very busy himself, detailed an officer to show me round and to explain all details to me.

This camp is situate on very high moorland ground about 800 feet above sea level, about 5 miles from the town of Hawick in Roxburghshire. It is a bleak and very cold spot and the slope of the hill on which the huts are built makes walking very difficult on account of the mud when there has been rain as it was on Saturday when I saw it.

There is accomodation for 4,800 men, but there are not quite that number interned at present.

The camp is divided into two parts which are again divided into two compounds each. They are numbered A. B. C. D.
A and B are on one side of the main road running through the middle of the whole camp, and here the civilian prisoners are interned, and they are wired in with strong wired fences all round.
C and D compounds are for military prisoners who are similary wired in.
Sentries are posted all around. Each compound can accomodate 1,200 men who are housed in wooden huts which hold 50 or 60 men each.

The men sleep on plank beds and have the usual palliasse of straw and three blankets. I saw some white private blankets being aired and was informed that the prisoners could have them in addition.

The huts are lighted by electricity and are heated by stoves and were quite warm, in fact I thought them stuffy, but the Teuton, as we know, prefers a close atmosphere to fresh air. There was plenty of room between the beds, about 3 or 4 feet. They had tables in the certre and several had pianos.

There are no proper Recreation Huts, and the Commandant told me he was trying to get one built for each half of the camp. Smoking is allowed everywhere which helps to make the atmosphere very thick in the huts, where the men play cards and amuse themeselves all day.

The food was very good. The meat is principally chilled beef, the bread waa of good quality and provided by a contractor in Hawick. The butcher's shop, bakery and all the kitchen arrangements, also the stores for potatoes, vegetables were very complete, and clean.

The Post Office arrangements were also very good, each camp (civilian and soldiers) having its own post office and parcels offices, under the charge of one of the officers who is assisted by prisoners, All parcels are opened in the presence of the addressee.

Each of the compounds A, B, C and D has its own washhouse with plenty of tin basins and buckets on shelves about 2½ feet high and with 16 taps with cold water. There are boilers outside the washhouses where hot water can be procured between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Each compound has a laundry washhouse with hot water and a good drying room adjoining. There is for each half camp a bath hut where the men get shower baths. Hot and cold water is provided and 40 men can bathe at a time. This is open all day. The sanitary arrangements are of the usual military camp pattern, buckets and earth and cleaned every morning. I considered them adequate.

There is a barber's tent, bootmaker's shop, printing office, carpenter's shop and a library with plenty of English and German books.

The camp is run by the prisoners themselves and they have bands and Swedish exercises and football. Both the civilian and soldiers camps have plenty of ground for exercise and games, each ground being, I should say, about 150 yards square.

There is a schoolroom which was quite full of men when I saw it, and lessons go on in there all day in Spanish, French and Russian.

The Canteen (one to each camp) is good and complete, and is run by the Army & Navy Stores, who have their own representative assisted by prisoners, It is very well stocked and the prices reasonable. 7½% on the profits are paid to the Commandant's fund. The distance from Hawick and the hilly roads make it necessary to charge a little more than in other camps more conveniently situated.

The prisoners are put to work at making roads and other kinds of useful works. Civilians are not compelled to work, The pay is one halfpenmny an hour and the work lasts for 6 hours daily

Saturdays and Sundays are holidays.

Religious services, Roman Catholic and Protestent, are held every Sunday in huts.

The electricity for the camp is supplied by its own power station and consists of threes dynamos.

Visitors are allowed, both male and female, once a month, and the interviews take place in the presence of an officer. They are supposed to last for 15 minutes, but owing to the distance from the station this is generally extended.

Clothing is issued when necessary.

Prisoners are not allowed out of the camp except for special reasons and then under military escort.

Discipline. The whole camp is paraded twice a day for roll call. The usual punishment for offences is from 24 hours cells and onwards by the Commandant. The cells are new and heated by steam pipes. Board beds and blankets ere allowed but no mattress. Men in cells are put on No. 2 diet which consists of:-
Breakfast 8 oz. bread
Dinner 1 pint stirabout made up of 2 oz.. oatmeal, 2 oz. Indian corn (maize) ½ lb. potatoes,
Supper 8 oz. bread.
Only water allowed to drink.

Hospital. This is very complete and appears to be admirable. There are 160 beds of the ordinary light spring type There are 6 wards containing 25 beds A ward is a complete hut with one good plunge bath, hot and cold water, and inside water closets, separated by a passage and doors from the actual ward. An operating hut is complete and will be opened soon. The kitchen arrangements are quite good and there are two ranges and boilers. The hospital is for the whole camp and is under the charge of a well known Edinburgh doctor who is a Territorial Major. I asked if he could suggest anything needful and he said nothing was required, he had all he wanted. The hospital is seperated by a barbed wire fence from the rest of the camp. There is very little sickness.

In summing up my impressions of this camp I should say that everything has been done for the comfort and convenience of the prisoners; they have plenty of ground for exercise and good food, and the men, both soldiers and civilians appear contented and even cheerful. The hospital arrangements could not be improved. The only fault, to my mind, was the situation of the camp. It is high up on a cold, bleak moor, and conditions there during the winter will be very severe, but as the huts are well warmed and lighted, and as metalled roads and boarded footpaths are being made through the camps and round the huts, no doubt the discomforts of cold and mud will be minimised,

(Sd.) W. C. ANDERSON, Col

The 4 camps mentioned above were laid out in a line running SW to NE - the hospital being a small group of huts adjoining the SW boundary fence Each camp consisted of 20 double huts with their long side also running SW to NE and arranged as two lines 10 huts deep along the SE-NW axis running up the hillside, various service buildings occuping the space betwen the lines of huts. Each camp had its own barbed wire fence - the main spline road of the camp running from the main entrance on the SE to NW between camps A+B and C+D. The entrances to each half section of the hut, home for some 30 men was on the gable end - there being 6 windows along each long side of a half hut. The huts were described by Murray as having corrugated iron roofs with asbestos sheet insulation

When the camp opened it would appear from descriptions in the camp newspaper "Stobsiade" that Camp A was the civilian and Camp B the military though some service building served both camps (eg the compositors room for the newspaper was in the Military Camp) though as the editorial of the 1st edition dated 5th Sept 1915 speaks of 3600 Germans in the camp with Camp C also indicated as a civilian camp. Later it appears that Camp B was exchanged with Camp C so that the Civilian and Military sides were seperated by the main camp spline road.

References

TNA FO 383/106 - contains reports on many camps based on visits in the early part of 1915

Stobs Camp Project Archaeology Scotland 2019 ISBN 978-1-9160512-2-5 - A small 48pp booklet outlining the history of the camp and its use for community led projects (relatively little detail re WW1 internees)

E. Judith Murray Stobs Camp 1903-1959 Transactions Hawick Archaeological Society 1988 pp 1-12 - an excellent illustrated paper filling in many details of the camp.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor Text + Transcription © F.Coakley , 2021