IT was one of the biggest world war prisoner-of-war camps of the old British Empire which held up to 6000 German prisoners.

Now the former Stobs Camp military training base in the Borders which became an internment camp is the focus of preservation and restoration plans to preserve its remarkable history.

The archaeology project, launched in Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology aims to establish a management plan that will ensure what remains of the First World War internment camp are appropriately protected and maintained to be seen by a wider audience.

A team of volunteers are to conduct a detailed survey of the POW camp, record the camp buildings and undertake targeted excavation. It is understood that there will be a sweep for unexploded munitions.

Dr Chris Bowles, Scottish Borders Council's archaeologist said : "This really is a huge project, and will be one of the biggest archaeology projects in Scotland.

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"Stobs Camp is of international significance because of the excellent state of preservation of some of its infrastructure - it is the best preserved First World War internment camp in the world and was the headquarters of the POW camp system in Scotland.

"This project is important as without it there is a real danger that the story of Stobs will be lost and the buildings that remain deteriorate further.

"Our aim is to improve access for visitors and create the necessary interpretation materials, including an app, to make sure the important role this site played during the First World War is remembered. The site has quite a few of stories to tell."

Built on bleak terrain near Hawick in 1903 as a 150-hut British Army training facility, Stobs Camp was used for internment at the end of 1914 when a further 200 huts were added.

The first internees were German civilian 'enemy aliens', but following the Western Front battles in Neuve Chappelle and Festubert in May 1915, they were soon outnumbered by POWs.

Military parade in Hawick, July 1914.  

The POWs were employed in the continuing construction of the camp with over 500 engaged in road making. Others helped create an effective sewage system.

One notable escape attempt saw four German POWs daringly boarding the afternoon train from Hawick to Edinburgh. Two men were re-captured, one at Granton and the other at Leith docks. The fate of their fellows is not recorded.

There were workshops for shoemaking, tailoring and hairdressing and a camp school taught internees a range of subjects including history and language. There was an orchestra, two singing societies and a theatre society. There were skittle alleys, two tennis courts and various sporting competitions.

The prisoners also produced their own camp newspaper, the Stobsiade and produced many examples of camp art, carving in both wood and bone.

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A cemetery was added to the camp. When the last POWs left in 1919, it contained the bodies of 35 soldiers, four sailors and six interned German civilians. When the camp finally closed in 1962, these bodies were removed to the German military cemetery in Staffordshire.

The prisoners were allowed to build a cairn to remember their comrades and planted a ring of yew trees nearby. The memorial was destroyed and the Stobs was decommissioned by the army in the 1960s.

As part of the Stobs Camp Project, the Borders Family History Society is looking to trace the ancestors of those German soldiers and seamen interred at Stobs.

They also aim to restore the cairn and host a special ceremony on Armistice Day 2018, on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.

The 4th Royal Scots march through streets of Hawick to Stobs Camp in July 1914


Project organisers say they are hoping to to invite descendants of the German prisoners for the commemoration.

Dianne Swift, Archaeology Scotland's project manager, said they are embarking on a project which will "bring to life the lost story of Stobs".

The site was first acquired by the UK Government from the owners of the Stobs Castle Estate in 1902 and the following year it was established as the main training base for British soldiers in Scotland, hosting 20,000 soldiers in its first full year. A new siding off the former Waverley Line enabled supplies to be brought in to camp and soldiers to disembark.

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The Cameronians at Stobs

Among the many Scottish regiments to train at Stobs were the 12th Scottish Rifles, the 9th Royal Scots and the 13th Highland Light Infantry.

Over the course of the following decade the camp became less used, due to lack of space to carry out all necessary training, and it ended up only being used by the Army during the summer.

As a result, the camp's future was in doubt. But after the outbreak of war in 1914 the infrastructure of Stobs made it an obvious choice to hold prisoners of war.

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