Hand carved wooden pace stick from Knockaloe
Date made: c.1918
Maker: unknown
Description: A wooden pace stick (as used by British army sergeant majors and other senior NCOs) carved with Germanic symbols and dates 1914-18 in relief. Found by donor at a property in Port Erin and believed to have been made in Knockaloe Internment Camp during the First World War. Other similar examples from Knockaloe are known to exist.
Probably made for an NCO guard.
Background:
During the First World War (1914-1918) the Isle of Man was used as an internment base for civilian ‘enemy aliens’. Its biggest camp was known as Knockaloe Camp, Patrick, situated in the west of the Island (other historic names referring to the camp include Knockaloe P.O.W. Camp, Knockaloe Prisoner of War Camp and Knockaloe Alien Detention Camp). Originally designed for 5,000 people, at its peak it housed up to 23,000 men and as many as 30,000 men may have been interned in total. The confinement of the prisoners led to specific behavioural issues known as ‘barbed wire disease’. Receiving its name from the aimless promenading of inmates up and down the barbed-wire boundary, other symptoms included moroseness and avoidance of others. It was decided that providing practical stimulation would help. The Friends’ Emergency Committee (a Quaker organisation) based in Great Britain was invited to the Island from 1915 onwards with the aim of providing books, tools, equipment and materials for the inmates to work and establish workshops.
Materials: wood
Object name: stick
Collection: Social History Collection
ID Number: 2022-0001
Subject tags : #WW1INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS