Bone napkin ring made at Knockaloe Camp

Date made: 1916

Maker: Tarre, Heinrich Paul

Description: A bone napkin ring (part of a set of two) which was made by Heinrich Paul Tarre, an internee at Knockaloe from 1915-1919. The napkin ring is carved with the inscription 'Knockaloe I.o.M 1916' and the initials 'HT' (Herman Tarre).

His grandson donated the items and gave the following biographical information:

"Heinrich Paul Tarre was born on the 2nd June 1888 in Scholitz / Delitsch north of Leipzig in Prussia. He wanted to become a translator which meant he had to learn languages but in the meantime had to provide a living for himself so he learned the profession of ladies hairdresser. He studied and worked in Paris and Brussels before moving to the UK in and around 1911. After a short stay in London he picked up work in Torquay and then left for Minehead where he must have met my future grandmother Mrs Ellen Burge born in Timberscombe, Somerset. They got married in the Parish Church of Stogumber on the 3rd August 1914 just one day before the UK declared war on Germany. He was arrested and brought to the Handforth Camp and subsequently to the Isle of Man where he was released in the beginning of 1919. He and his wife then moved to Germany where my mother was born in 1920 in the city of Efurt. As the situation in Germany after the war was terrible and my grandmother could not speak German they decided to emigrate to the United States so they set out towards Rotterdam but once they were in the Netherlands the British Government had relaxed its attitude towards English nationals married to Germans so she was allowed to see her relatives in the UK again. In the end they decided to stay in The Netherlands where he opened a ladies hairdresser's shop in The Hague. He was quite successful and enjoyed a good life. He died in 1968."

Measurements: overall: 3.5 cm x 4 cm x 4 cm

Materials: bone

Object name: napkin ring

Collection: Social History Collection

ID Number: 2018-0107/1

Subject tags : #WW1INTERNMENTMUSEUMCOLLECTIONS

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