Sefton Internment Camp
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File:The Sefton Hotel and Gaiety Theatre - geograph.org.uk - 416670.jpg
Sefton Camp was one of the World War II internment camps in the Isle of Man, where Italian, German and Finnish residents of Britain were held.
The camp was located in the Sefton Buildings, built during the 1890s next to the Gaiety Theatre, on the promenade in Douglas.[http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/towns/douglas/sefton.htm http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook] It was one of the smallest of the ten internment camps on the island during World War II, with only 307 residents. Of these, 42 were invalids.Island of Barbed Wire, Connery Chappell, Corgi Books, 1984, pp. 55 & 147
The Sefton Camp held prisoners from October 1940 until March 1941.{{cite book|last=Belchem|first=John|title=A New History of the Isle of Man: The modern period 1830-1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yjHHVG_aiOAC&pg=PA464|accessdate=24 May 2015|year=2000|publisher=Liverpool University Press|isbn=9780853237266|pages=464–}}
The camp had a newspaper, the Sefton Review, published fortnightly from November 1940 to 3 February 1941. Notable editorial pieces concern its letters sent to notable politicians and public figures to try to find a sympathetic ear for their plight. It also wrote to the Mayor of Coventry offering toys as gifts to families stricken by the bombings. The letter received a kindly{{vague|date=May 2015}} reply.Island of Barbed Wire, Connery Chappell, Corgi Books, 1984, p.147
The camp closed around the beginning of April 1941 due to the relatively large numbers of internees who had been released since the start of the internment camps on the island.This date comes from [http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?6891-WWII-Internment-Camps-in-the-Isle-of-Man http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150818084017/http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?6891-WWII-Internment-Camps-in-the-Isle-of-Man |date=2015-08-18 }}, although it is in conflict with the report of the camp’s “vanishing from the list [of camps] by March 1941” in Island of Barbed Wire, Connery Chappell, Corgi Books, 1984, p.55 The internees there who were not due for release were transferred to other camps on the island. The Home Office then informed the Sefton Hotel Company, and tenants of the Church Road houses, that they could have their property back on 4 May 1941.[http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?6891-WWII-Internment-Camps-in-the-Isle-of-Man http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150818084017/http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?6891-WWII-Internment-Camps-in-the-Isle-of-Man |date=2015-08-18 }}