Knockaloe Internment Camp Isle of Man

We are a Registered Charity based on the Isle of Man to provide a visitors centre and archive at the site of the largest WW1 internment camp.

• Nonprofit Organization
• Community Organization
• Landmark Historical Place
• Landmark & Historical Place

100 years ago, on 17 November 1914, over 23,000 internees, such as Josef Pilates, together with their guards, including Archibald Knox, started moving into Knockaloe Farm, Patrick Village.
A registered charity company limited by guarantee has been set up by the community of Patrick Village to use the old Patrick Schoolrooms, located at the entrance to Knockaloe Farm, to develop an on-site Visitors Centre and web based Archive to bring this very human aspect of Patrick Village and Island history to life.
The exhibition will use the latest technology to collate the stories of the internees, guards and village members, by reaching out to their descendants around the globe, via the internet, 100 years later, to tell the story of the lives of the residents of Patrick and Knockaloe, including their stories leading to and after internment, and help other descendants, who may have little information, to find out more.
A few features and remains of the camp and its inhabitants can be seen in the village and on Knockaloe Farm, and the Visitors Centre will use various methods to help visitors understand more about how the camp would have looked and what life in Knockaloe and Patrick would have been like through photographs, computer graphics, a hut reconstruction, and using the collated stories of the internees, as well as linking through to information available at the imuseum. It will include visual reconstructions of the fields to show how it would have looked as a camp and proposes self-guided walks through Patrick Village and Knockaloe Farm to see points of interest and pinpoint hut locations.
It aims to use the same vision employed by Jersey in its war tunnels, Orkney in its war interpretation sites and France with the fields of the Somme and the D-Day landings to allow it to be self-supporting. With potentially well in excess of 1 million descendants alive today (calculated with the assistance of the Office of National Statistics) and constantly increasing, and with special interest independent, cruise and coach visitor, there is the potential to enhance the visitor economy of the island. If just 1% of say 1 million descendants visited this site and exhibition with their spouses or another guest, this could generate £7.3m new income to the Island economy (based on 2013 Government visitor spend data ) Via the website the Exhibition will be actively communicating with this market.
The new Charity has already raised a substantial sum from the community but it has much more yet to raise over coming months and all support would be gratefully received. As a registered charity run on a not for profit basis and separate from Government, the renovation and on-going running will be done in a low cost manner and seek donations from Trusts and individuals and look to develop internee descendant “friends”, to help continually develop the exhibition and website. The new Board of the Charity consists of members of the community including professionals and those already running tourist and visitor attractions on the island who are donating that experience to ensure the professionalism, integrity and success of this new attraction.
In addition to funds already raised, the Charity is seeking a 25% of initial set up cost visitor attraction grant from DED, however this will be an investment in the old Patrick Schoolrooms, a historic building in itself desperately in need of repair. (The Charity holds a 21 year lease from Government, which owns the building subject to a restrictive covenant over its use).
The Exhibition provides a future for the Schoolrooms which is vital for this central building to Patrick community life. It also brings to life the story of a unique village history. So the community believes that the vast amount of voluntary work required to achieve it will be well worthwhile.
In the meantime the funding for the website has been secured and the Charity aims to launch the website 100 years to the day after the internees moved into Knockaloe on 17 November 1914. Contact us: info@knockaloe.im

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