ABSTRACT
During the Great War, the Isle of Man became the largest detention centre in the British Isles for ‘enemy aliens’, earning from some reluctant guests the nickname of ‘Devil’s Island.’ From 1914 to 1919, the Island accommodated some 25,000 male internees. The Island’s own population numbered only 52,000—a figure inflated and a demographic skewed by the fact that most of the local able-bodied men of military age were away at the war. Island casualties were high: 1,165 Manxmen died.
