Information panels on the new public toilets on Queens Promenade in Douglas display information on Douglas during WWI (1914-1918) and WWII (1939-1945).
The Manx Radio website reported the opening of the new toilets and their information panels as follows:
'Lessons in history on prom
New-look toilets on Douglas Promenade have been adorned with a World War I mural.
The public conveniences at the northern end of the walkway are now open, complete with a 'living roof'.
Manx National Heritage has worked with Douglas Council and Isle of Man Advertising to create new artwork detailing the history of the capital's Great War internment camps.
It's envisaged more art will adorn the toilet walls in the coming months.
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The WWI panel which faces out to the Bay is entitled "Civilian Internment in the First World War.
Down the left-hand edge of this panel are directions to attractions of the panel. The Information on this panel is shown below:
'At the start of the First World War in 1914, there were approximately 60,000 Germans living in the British Isles.
Fear at the outbreak of war and the notion that all Germans could be acting as enemy agents led to the development of 'spy-fever'.
On 5th August 1914, the day after war was officially declared, the Aliens Restriction Act was passed by the British Government. The Act allowed the government to control movement of 'enemy aliens' where they could live and what they could do.
From the summer of 1915, men were interned at a rate of 1,000 per week and by November there were 32,400 interned in various location within the British Isles.
Once the decision had been made to intern 'enemy aliens', the next problem was finding somewhere to put them, the Home Office in London, through the Destitute Aliens Committee, proposed the opening of a camp on the Isle of Man which was agreed with Tynwald and the First group of 200 internees arrived on 22nd September 1914, barely a month after the outbreak of war.
Douglas Camp
The Douglas Camp, a large tented holiday complex above Douglas Promenade off Victoria Road, was set up in the old 'Cunningham's Camp', where previously thousands of bachelors were accustomed to spending a cheap and healthy holiday. This was taken over as the first internment camp on the Isle of Man.
Barbed wire was speedily erected, gas and electric standard lamps were introduced for lighting the compounds at night, various guardrooms were built, and other alternations made in time for the arrival of internees.
On a British Foreign Office visit to the Douglas Camp in 1916, it was noted that there were 2,744 prisoners interned in the camp, of whom 1,968 were German, 759 were Austrian, 14 were Turkish, and three were of other nationalities.'
Alongside this text on the right-hand side of the Panel are five photographs of scenes from the Douglas Camp which are captioned as follows:
Top: A group of jazz/ragtime musicians in Douglas Camp (2015)
Below: An Artist's studio in Douglas Camp (1914-1919)
Left: A group of internees attending an educational class at Douglas Camp (1914-1919)
Far Left top: Covered bowling alley at Douglas Camp (1914)
Far Left: A Group of actors from a theatrical production at Douglas Camp, an historical costume play.
Below the main text on this panel are 2 small panels as follows:
Left:
'In the beginning, the conditions at Douglas Camp were pretty poor, which with a combination of poor winter weather, overcrowding and complaints about food, led to a riot in the Camp on 19th November 1914, during which five internees died.
The subsequent inquest blamed the riot on overcrowding and poor quality food. There were over 3,000 internees housed in the camp instead of 2,400 as anticipated, and weevils had been found in the food. The building of a new camp at Knockaloe on the west coast of the Island helped to ease overcrowding at Douglas Camp.
Originally, the internees slept in tents and ate in a large permanent building. Later, the tents were superseded by huts, and the Camp divided into three sections: Privilege Camp, Ordinary Camp and a Jewish Camp.
The Privilege Camp housed 400-500 'privilege prisoners'. By paying 10s a week, two or three internees secured a small, separate hut between then and by paying £1 a week, they had their own tent or hut. The Privilege Camp internees were allowed to have their own servants and approximately 100 other internees were employed in this capacity. Some of the privilege internees even paid for life-size portraits painted by professional artists who were also internees.
The Ordinary Camp consisted of eight huts containing bunks, each hut accommodated 120 men. To control the camp, there was a Captain in each hut and a Captain to each compound.
The Jewish Camp consisted of members of the Jewish community who were provided with Kosher food and were given facilities for celebrating Jewish festivals.'
Right:
'Keeping Busy as an Internee
The great problem with the internment camps was boredom and lack of purpose, as was said at the time 'you must either give them something to do or let them go dotty'. Internees suffered from what was commonly known as 'barbed wire disease'; with no opportunities to work, no privacy, no release date and limited contact with the outside world, internees suffered depression and mental health issues.
From 1915 onwards, the Friends' Emergency Committee provided books, equipment and materials for the internees to work with and to start workshops in the camps.
By 1916, about 85 per cent of internees in the Douglas Camp found work in a variety of jobs - waiters, stewards, clerks, gardeners, musicians, etcetera, with almost 100 internees working on the neighbouring farms.
Entertainment at the Douglas Camp consisted of an array of activities including fitness with an exercise field of eight acres, five tennis courts, a football field, running track and gymnastic class. In their Privilege Camp, there was also a swimming pool. By 1916. a covered bowling alley had been built.
Education was also used to combat 'barbed wire disease'. At Douglas Camp 1,400 interned men were occupied as teachers or pupils in the camp schools. There were technical classes where the internees could work at tailoring, shoemaking, cobbling, broom making, etcetera, with a heavily attended art school and a small typewriting school.'
At the base of this panel is a large photograph of internees in the Douglas Camp.
The WWII panel which faces the path to north of building is entitled "Civilian Internment in the Second World War.
On the left-hand side of this panel is the Information shown below:
'During the Second World War, many thousands of people were held in internment camps on the Isle of Man. Although some were political detainees, prisoners of war or suspected spies, because of their anti-Nazi political beliefs.
The largest concentration of camps was in Douglas, four of which were along the Promenade - Central, Metropole, Palace and Sefton - created largely out of boarding houses and hotels ringed with barbed wire to form compounds.
Each camp was supervised by military and civilian personnel and had its own personality and character, changing over time as one set of 'enemy aliens' left and another arrived.
Because so many internees were academics, education became an important part of life behind barbed wire. In Central Camp, for example, there were classes in literature, languages, theology and philosophy. The camp was also noted for its exceptionally high number of musicians. By contrast, the elderly and disabled made up much of Sefton Camp's population.
Some of the camps had medical units. Metropole Camp set one up in the Dodsworth boarding house and Central Camp had a basic one-room surgery, despite around 200 of its internees being Jewish specialist consultants and surgeons.
By the end of the Second World War there had been some 57 attempts at escape across the Island's internment camps, there were by a relatively small number of internees (who were interned for most of the war and couldn't be released). None of the escape attempts were successful.
Today you can still see the locations of the internment camp fence posts on Douglas Promenade in between the horse tram tracks, the macadam squares relate to the original post holes for the perimeter fencing around each of the promenade internment camps erected in the summer of 1940.
HMS Valkyrie
HMS Valkyrie was established as the Royal Navy's No. 1 Radar Training School, its personnel billeted in a number of guest houses which had been requisitioned for the duration and which were situated on Loch Promenade, Douglas. The training was undertaken at a series of buildings on Douglas Head, one being the Douglas Head Hotel, and one of which today is occupied by Manx Radio.
On the cessation of hostilities plans were put in place to decommission HMS Valkyrie, the final building was vacated by 1947. During the lifetime of HMS Valkyrie over 30,000 naval ratings passed through the Royal Navy's No.1 Radar Training School.
Jon Pertwee (the third and arguably most famous incarnation of Doctor Who) was one of the men stationed at HMS Valkyrie as Sub-Lieutenant after having been invalided out of the war. Jon Pertwee helped form the Service Players in 1942, starring in plays such as 'Night Must Fall'.'
On the right-hand side of this panel is the Information shown below:
'Central Camp
Central Camp held around 2,000 internees and was spread over 34 houses on and behind Central Promenade next to the Central Mona Hotel. It opened in June 1940 and closed in mid-1941, after which it served as an RAF station.
The Camp became noted for its parliament-like organisational structure, complete with a 'cabinet', 'ministers', 'speaker' and 'deputy speaker'.
Metropole Camp
Metropole Camp opened in July 1940 and housed mostly Italian internees; Italy having become a German ally in 1940. Numbers ranged from 750 to fewer than 500 when it closed in October 1944.
It is reported that on summer evenings many of the opera-singing internees would give impromptu concerts from behind the barbed wire, much to the delight of passer-by.
Palace Camp
Opened in June 1940, Palace Camp was one of the largest, holding some 2,900 internees, almost all of whom were Italians - either Fascists or anti-Fascists - in 28 houses near the Palace Hotel on Queen's Promenade. As with most camps, concerts were the most popular distraction.
Around December 1941, some 400 nationals of Finland, Hungary, Japan and Romania joined the Italians who were, by that time, fewer in number.
The camp closed in November 1942.
Sefton Camp
Located at the Sefton Hotel and in properties along Harris Promenade, Sefton Camp was the smallest on the promenade. It opened in October 1940, had capacity for between 600 and 700 men and closed in March 1941.
Life in the camp was likened to being 'in a zoo' with internees behind barbed wire being a source of fascination for civilian passers-by on the promenade'; as depicted on the photograph of at the foot of this panel.
Superimposed over this large photograph are two small photographs showing a naval ratings passing out parade and an inspection of wrens both events taking place on the Douglas Promenade.