First World War internees

Very few records of individual internees survive for the First World War. Two specimen lists of German subjects interned as POWs in 1915-16 can be found in WO 900/45 and 46. These lists are divided into army, naval and civilian prisoners, and give the regiment, ship or home address of each prisoner.

A classified list of interned enemy aliens can be found in HO 144/11720/364868. Nominal rolls of male enemy aliens of the age of 45 and upwards, submitted to the Secretary of State by commandants of internment camps, are included among a census of aliens in the United Kingdom from 1915 to 1924 in HO 45/11522/287235. Lists of alien enemies detained in Lunatic Asylums within the Metropolitan Police District can also be found in this document.

Among the older papers attached to some of the files in the series HO 382 and HO 405 are First World War appeals against internment. References to individual internees can also be found in the card index to the Foreign Office general correspondence in series FO 371 in the Open Reading Room. Any reference found on a card needs to be turned into a modern National Archives reference: for guidance on doing this, see Overseas Records Information leaflets 12 and 13. The presence of a card in the index does not necessarily mean that the papers to which it relates have survived.

Home Office records dealing with policy relating to internees and internment camps can be found in HO 45 and HO 144. Both series of records are arranged by subject and papers relating to internment and internees may be found under the headings ´Aliens´, ´Nationality´, and ´War´. HO 45/10946/266042 and HO 45/10947/266042 both relate to administration of Internee camps on the Isle of Man.

Other material on internees is in the correspondence of the Metropolitan Police in series MEPO 2. This includes MEPO 2/1633, which concerns the administration of Islington Internment Camp during the First World War.