Knockaloe Camp - Inquests

Under Manx law it was necessary to hold an inquest whenever there was a sudden or a violent death - deaths in captivity also came into this class. The Manx coroner was a long established title of a crown officer and up to 1777 had the responsibility of holding such inquests with a jury of six or more - following the introduction of High Bailiffs in that year this task now fell on the High Bailiff appointed for the district in which the death took place - the jury followed the English practice of requiring 11 men though unlike as in England, the Coroner of Inquests was not a medical man and generally called on the doctors who had treated the deceased to give evidence as to cause of death. As for all other courts the public had to be allowed to witness proceedings. The Jurors could demand to see the body - they did so during the inquest of an Austrian Pole on 23 June 1917 and were refused permission to enter the camp except with the permission of the Governor - the Commandant was reported as saying it was not desireable to have a number of persons going in and out of the Camp, and that he must refer the matter to the Governor - the jurors agreed not to insist on their legal right as this would require an adjournment but the High Bailiff stated that arrangements would be made in case other juries wished to see the body.

The coroner's reported closing remarks on the first such inquest on a deceased alien prisoner held in the camp were that "he hoped the jury [all 11 named in rpt] would have less difficulty getting out of the camp than in getting in." Following this initial inquest then until late in 1917 almost all inquests were held in Patrick Schoolroom just across the road from the entrance to the camp though in one case, noted as probably unique, it had to be held in Patrick Primitive Methodist Chapel just down the road from the camp as the schoolroom was in use. There were no electric lights in the school, the camp had offered to extend the electricity supply to the school but the school authorities would need to arrange and pay for the necessary insurance which they refused to do saying that for the needs of educating children such a supply was unnecessary - in winter it was sometimes necessary to arrange acetylene lights for the inquests to take place. As the education of children took priority it was often necessary to arrange inquests on a Saturday afternoon - another bone of contention was that unlike the High Bailiff and the majority of the doctors who were on the staff of the Camp, the jurors were unpaid and being generally tradesmen resented being forced to spend time away from employment, often at very short notice - there is at least one case of a juryman who did not turn up being fined £1. One of many such reported complaints was that of Mr G. S Morrison who on the threat of an adjournment of the inquest from the Monday afternoon in early March 1916 was reported as saying:

"It was jolly hard lines that they as tradesmen had to waste their time coming there for nothing, when it was an English thing pure and simple, and the Isle of Man was a foreign country. Everyone else was paid, and he did not see why their time should be taken up and receive nothing for it. If there was any pay on it, it would be sent to Douglas, as anything of any value in the camp was sent to Douglas. Every man employed on the staff belonged to Douglas, and he thought the inquests should be sent there too."

The first coroner's jury of 7 men legalised by war legislation was held in Douglas on 17th August 1917. Post early September 1917 it became possible to hold inquests within the camp grounds and presumably allow access to the mortuary for jurors as "provision now having been made for the holding of inquests within the camp " [Peel City Guardian 11 Sep 1917].

These inquests were generally reported by the insular newspapers though the Peel City Guardian and Ramsey Courier would appear to have carried the more detailed reports. The official files are held by the IoM PRO and ar now released for public access under the 100 years rule. The inquest file follows a fairly standard format of a note as to date of admission into the camp, identification by two witnesses who knew the deceased and a report by a medical officer as to cause of death.

Each inquest report generally gives a brief biography of the deceased and the names of two witnesses whose relationship to the deceased is also given. Names are however somewhat variable in spelling in these reports - the transcribed Patrick burials also appear to contain several misread names. Camp numbers were not given in I.C.R.C. [Red Cross] reports until mid 1916 thus any camp numbers if not given in official inquest, need to be derived from the few surviving official camp records or the newspaper reports.

List of Inquests

For some reason several of inquests held in 1915 are dated 1916/nn

The large peak in deaths at end of 1918 is due to the Spanish flu epidemic.

Graves of two Jewish Internees at Knockaloe

RDC Soldiers

The death rate (deaths/1000) for soldiers was higher than those for Aliens in 1915-1917

Inquests

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2019