Isle of Man WW1 internment camp stamps auctioned

Five stamps from an Isle of Man World War One internment camp are to be auctioned off in London.

The items from the Knockaloe camp post office are set to go under the hammer on 30 and 31 July.

A spokesman from Stanley Gibbons stamp specialists said they were discovered by the daughter of a former camp guard in her dead dad's belongings.

The spokesman said: "Very few records survive of this WWI camp so it's incredible that we have these."

Until 1981 it was believed that only one unused sheet of twenty-one stamps, held in the Manx Museum, existed.

Camp railway

Stanley Gibbons said the company is auctioning five used stamps with estimates ranging from £500 to £1,300.

The Isle of Man became the second largest settlement of internees in the British Isles during WW1.

There were 25,000 Germans, Austrians and Turks brought to the island and held at Knockaloe

The Knockaloe camp was purpose built using prefabricated huts, with 23 compounds divided between four camps.

It had its own railway line and post office.