World war crime - an alien In The army

When a son of a German immigrant try’s to join the British army he will be put on trial 

Transcript

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World War Crime. This is a short little snippet of a podcast, a little series I fancy doing for a little while, to tell you some of the crimes that occurred during the First World War, how it affected soldiers on the Western Front, and what happened to them afterwards. I'd like to thank the British Newspaper Archives, Ancestry.com, the Commonwealth War Graves, and several other platforms to do so. So this will be a little podcast on a Friday afternoon you might want to listen to on the way home. The short, sharp, sweet stories about soldiers during the Great War and possibly might get some to go for the second. An alien in the army. In 1914, the Illegal Aliens Act came into effect. This would be where Austrians and Germans, who were living in the United Kingdom, will be gathered up and sent into internment camps. One of them was at Alexander Palace, and there were also several large ones placed on the Isle of Man. A similar thing which would occur throughout the century and in many different nations. London and Manchester and Birmingham had large German populations, many of them were of Jewish heritage, which had come back after the pogrims in Europe, and many of them would settle here. There were cases at the Christmas truce in 1914 that many barbers and porters who'd worked in London had returned home to join the German army and then would face off against people they would have probably worked with in Civy Street. This case occurred in Huddersfield in January 1915, and it involves a Charles Henry Wagner of the Royal Garrison Artillery. His father was German. However, when he returned on leave, he would be arrested by a constable, as it became clear that the father of this boy was German. Sadly, Wagner is a very common name, and I haven't been able to find Frederick Wagner, his father, to see whether he'd been interned in any of the camps at this time. Not all Germans were interned, however, they would be put under suspicion, and in some cases their businesses would be taken from them. We know that Charles Henry Wagner, prior to the outbreak of the First World War, had been a butcher, but would serve as a driver in the Rawfield artillery. In his service record we can see that he was sent to Blackpool to go to court, and this was on the 29th of January 1915. However, he's gone back to his regiment and his battalion and served out on the Western Front in 1917, so perhaps he'd been put into some sort of penal servitude and perhaps even been put into an internment camp until such time that they saw fit that he could go and serve back with the colours. He was demobbed from the army on the eleventh of May 1919 and went on to live a long and happy life. He died in 1972. However, when we look closely at his medal card, this record shows what service he did, for how long, where he was first deployed to, and whether he was entitled to medals. There's all various different writings on here, which sometimes are quite hard to understand. But he only received his medals after a quest in 1939. And if I do get any more research on it, I will do a separate little add-on podcast to give you a little bit of an update, but it's a very interesting part of the history. There are several cases of soldiers who had Germanic or Austrian names who actually changed their names and served as different soldiers. Also, at the tail end of the First World War, when labour was required out on the Western Front, we also remember we need to remember that for every man in the front line it would take ten men to get him there. So in cases where children of these German immigrants were of age, they would serve in labour battalions, so not holding a rifle, but working in the general work. One particular battalion of the Middlesex Regiment would have a class of these men. It's a different avenue, not a major crime, but the time of war it was something that was already already known. I hope you enjoy these little podcasts, and there's always a little tiny podcast going to come out on a Friday afternoon, and hopefully something that you enjoy. But if you can think of any world war crime that you want investigated, please send us a message. If you want to buy us a coffee, it's always well received. And if you can follow us on TikTok and also on Facebook. Otherwise, I'll see you soon.