WW1 Internee - August Schmittal

The following is taken from various Foreign Office files in the FO 383 series

The first is a note in file FO 383/109, dated 14th July 1915, from Edward Sebag Montefiore who, by happenchance was visiting Knockaloe at the time, to Sir Horace Walpole.

Sir

I am directed by the Destitute Aliens Committee to transmit you herewith for the information of Mr E. T. Lowry of the American Embassy the following particulars in connection with the wounding of an interned alien at Knockaloe Concentration Camp, Peel, Isle of Man on Sunday night, the 11th July.

It appears that one of the guard was much distressed at the receipt of information that his son had been killed in the Dardenelles and had brooded over the event, which had thoroughly unhinged his mind. He was not actually on duty at the time, but entered the Guard House and taking one of the rifles aimed at an alien, who was drawing water. The man was hit in a non-vital part and immediately removed to Hospital.

The Officer in charge of the Compound immediately entered the wire enclosure and took steps to reassure the interned aliens and to explain to them that the regrettable incident was one which would immediately be dealt with by the authorities.

The guard in question was immediately placed under arrest and will in due course be tried and dealt with according to law.

I happened at the time to be visiting the Camps in the Isle of Man and together with Mr. R.S. Meiklejohn a member of this Committee, went over to Knockaloe on Monday afternoon, where I saw the wounded man and explained to him the nature of the accident.

The Doctors inform me that he is progressing satisfactorily and as he appears to be a man of first class physique, there should be little doubt that he will ultimately completely recover. Meanwhile instructions have been left that every medical attention and care should be bestowed upon him

Lowry was the head of the section of the American Embassy which was representing German interests in the UK (his name was used by the' Lowry Committees' established in the camps to handle various payments made by the German Government) - he reacted quickly as of the 16th July Montefiore was writing to Sir Horace Walpole to say that

Lowry of the American Embassy has rung me up to enquire whether I had sent an official report of the shooting incident at Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man and asking that he should be officially notified of the occurance.
I informed him that I had written to you on Wednesday and that no doubt you would communicate with him in the near future.

Lowry seems to consider the matter somewhat urgent as he is anxious to communicate with Berlin before he recieves enquiries from there in connection with the incident.

As much of the behaviour in operating their respective internment camps was based on a tit-for-tat basis Lowry wanted to defuse any possible reprisal action based on any incorrect understanding, as exagerated stories always seemed to travel faster than any more considered account.

Montefore then muddied the waters somewhat by getting the internees name wrong in that in the reply to Lowry he referred to him as August Schmidt (which surname was very common in the camp) rather than Johann August Schmittal (or Schmittat) which name was correctly given in the regular update on hospital admissions passed on the the ICRC (their document D.44-36) dated 17th July 1915 which described the injuries as "gunshot wounds to chest" - he was later noted as discharged from the camp hospital some 8 weeks later. Whether the address of "Dick Strasse, Kray near Essen" given by Montefiore was correct is now difficult to confrm as at the time the ICR gave only the PoWIB serial number along with names, in this case #238, which should have allowed easy access to age, address etc, but for that the first seven lists of internee details of some 18000 German civilians sent to the ICRC do not appear to have survived .

Lowry was correct in assuming that the German authorities would try to make use of the incident, they requested that at the minimum the internee should be repatriated as soon as able to travel, the British rebuffed this on several occasions over the next year - I have not, as yet, discovered when the injured internee was repatriated.

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2018