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HS2 0RG - Ballantrushal, Isle of Lewis

Following the fall of Antwerp in October 1914, 1500 men from Winston Churchill鈥檚 Royal Naval Division crossed the border into the neutral Netherlands to evade capture from the German Army. More than a hundred of these men were from the Isle of Lewis. They were interned in Groningen in Holland, in a camp dubbed HMS Timbertown. Eilidh Macleod鈥檚 great-grandfather was one of these Lewis internees and her father Angus tells the story of how her great-aunty Ina got permission for her own father to get leave to help with the harvest.

Unlike prison camp, a number of men interned in Groningen were granted leave under the strict instructions that they went back to camp after a period of a few weeks. If they did not return then the privilege would be revoked for others. Not one man failed to return.

Photograph courtesy of Angus Macleod, Ina with her mother and her aunt outside 5 Ballantrushal taken around 1915