First World War internee Carl Schoenfeldt in front of an internment chalet, Douglas Camp, Isle of Man
Date(s): ?1916
Scope & Content: Chalet number 2. Chalet plaque reads Schonfeldt and Meinberg
The glass plate is marked 'Mr Schoenfeldt 4410' which corresponds to 4410 Carl Schoenfeldt in the Douglas Camp daybook. The closest match on the ICRC database is Carl Schoenfeldt with Red Cross information bureau number 40623. He appears first at Eastcote camp, Northamptonshire in August 1915. Age 55. Home address: Hamburg, Oltersbeck Allee 31. He was transferred to Hyde Vale Priory, Greenwich in August 1915, noted as 'Chronic Rheumatism unfit for ordinary concentration camp.' On 13/12/15 he is recorded as hospitalised at Stratford camp.
The Douglas Camp daybook records his arrival from Stratford 22/12/1915. He was then allocated number 4245. On 18/2/1916 he was transferred to Alexandra Palace. He is recorded again in the Douglas register, returning on 30/3/1916 and allocated number 4410. He was transferred to Spalding on 13/4/1918.
There is a passenger list record for a Carl Schoenfeld of approximately the right age and a resident of Hamburg, as a captain in the Hamburg-Amerika Line, travelling to New York in 1914 aboard the Graf Waldersee (Ancestry). This is possibly the same man, but a statement from Captain Carl Shoenfeld of Douglas Camp is contained in TNA FO383/432/108635. From at inquest report at IOMPRO he is identified the Captain of the Prinz Adalbert. She was in Falmouth harbour when war was declared between Germany and France. Despite being advised to leave by the harbourmaster, the captain chose to remain and the ship and crew were seized upon Britain's entry into the war. He was called to attend a prize court in London in 1916, hence the journey to Alexandra Palace.
Nationality: German
Language: eng
Extent: overall: 16 cm x 12 cm
Physical description: Black & white glass half-plate negative
Item name: photograph
Collection: Photographic Archive
Level: ITEM
ID number: PG/7870/35455