Ally Pally through the eyes of a German internee in World War 1

When war broke out in 1914, it wasn't long before German civilians (and those who were thought to be German) living in Britain were targeted by the authorities and by local citizens.

Businesses were vandalised, one such attack occurred at the jewellers shop owned by John Smith at 536 High Road, Tottenham where so-called respectable people broke windows with rocks; people with 'odd' surnames were forced to take out declarations in local papers that they were English born and bred; and the authorities immediately required that Germans were to be registered by the police and, later, interned many of them in harsh conditions.

Artist George Kenner, living in South London, was registered as an "alien enemy" on August 23, 1914, then abruptly interned five days after the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine on May 7, 1915.

After a spell in a tent camp at Aldershot, George was transferred to Alexandra Palace. As he was a gifted artist, he was able to negotiate to create a series of internment scenes, many of which were painted at Ally Pally.

It is a remarkable set of paintings which show daily life at the camp in what to most of us are familiar surroundings:

George was eventually transferred to the Isle of Man, and then returned to the harsh post war conditions of Germany where he married and had three children, two of whom died as a result of the terrible poverty that Germany struggled with in the 1920s.

He and his family later emigrated to the USA where they had another child. The grandson of that child has posted a wonderful set of his paintings and documents on Flickr. 

Click on any picture above to view large and see the full set of 59 photos here