Selim Hassan was a “male of Turkish nationality” and an “alien interned in Camp 4 Compound 6” of the Knockaloe Camp in the parish of Patrick on the Isle of Man. He and his step-brother Dervish Hassan, a farmer with a wife and two children in the Anatolian Peninsula, had been arrested at Gibraltar in September 1914. Dervish was transferred from Lancaster to Knockaloe on September 16, 1915, probably together with Selim.

            Selim’s step-brother Dervish was admitted to the Isolation Hospital A of Camp 3 on February 21, 1917, suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. He made no improvement and died in the hospital at the age of 36 on May 18, 1917. The coroner attributed his death to “natural causes, namely pulmonary tuberculosis and exhaustion.” Through an interpreter, Selim had to make a signed declaration concerning his step-brother’s death. He explained that Dervish had been returning to “Turkey” from the United States. Dervish’s uncle Hassan Mohamed, also speaking through an interpreter, identified himself as a prisoner of war (registration 18216 [sic]), interned in the same camp and compound. Hassan indicated that he had visited his nephew in the hospital and had “no complaint to make as to his treatment.” Hassan signed with an x.[1]

[1] Isle of Man Public Record Office, A168, inquest files: Dervish Hassan.