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| Above: My great uncle, John Paton (seated), in Ruhleben, 1916, shortly after his internment. |
In 1914, thousands of British civilians and merchant seamen, along
with foreigners from other nationalities with British connections, were interned at the hastily constructed prisoner of war
camp at Ruhleben racecourse by Spandau, near Berlin, Germany. Most would not see freedom from the camp until the end
of the war, but managed to create and maintain a unique way of life for the four years of their unwelcome internment.
This site was constructed to try and tell the stories of as many
of those civilians as possible, and to act as a memorial for those who found themselves as the unwitting victims of circumstance,
caught up in a struggle that should never have happened.
Sources trawled for information on the inmates include Ruhleben based
websites on the internet, printed publications, the National Archives catalogue in London, issues of the Ruhleben Camp Magazine,
sales on E-bay of Ruhleben related memorabilia, and many, many more.
If you have anything that might
help further the story of the Ruhleben POW camp, I would be extremely pleased to hear from you! Please contact me at my new
e-mail address of christopherpaton@tiscali.co.uk (please note that the previous e-mail address of chrispaton@btinternet.com is now defunct)
NEWS UPDATE
BBC Scotland interviewed me as part of a piece today on the 90th anniversary of the return
of Ruhleben POWs to Leith in 1918. The story can be viewed by clicking on the image below. Keep an eye out for footage of
the internees disembarking, in case you recognise anybody!
A recent newspaper article (Sep 3rd 2008) on the work of this website
was written by Janis Blower of the Shields Gazette, and can be viewed online at the following link: Rallying Round Our Prisoners of War.
Matthew Stibbe's long awaited book "British Civilian Internees in
Germany: The Ruhleben Camp, 1914-1918" has been published by Manchester University Press on May 1st 2008. The hardback
edition of the book can be ordered at a price of £55, and the paperback edition for £14.24, through the following links
at Amazon.co.uk:
It's a great read and I would like to thank Matthew for his kind words in the Acknowledgements
section of his book in regard to this website project.
Secondly, I have now digitised the complete run of "In Ruhleben Camp" and "La Vie Francaise
de Ruhleben", which are now available for sale on CD through the shop link on the left hand side of the page.
Finally, I now work as a full time professional genealogist in Scotland, with very reasonable
rates (!), and am happy to help anybody with Scottish family history needs and problems. My website at www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk outlines the services that I can provide.
I look forward to hearing from you, and helping in any way I can!
Chris
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| The racecourse at Ruhleben, home to five and a half thousand civilian POWS in the First World War. |
This site currently contains the names
of approximately 1946 out of 5500 prisoners who were interned at Ruhleben.
Please use the links on the top left hand side of this page to navigate your way
around the site.
Last updated May 3rd 2009
Scottish family history research service.
Bring your ancestry back to life!
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