Private Papers of V David

Journal (circa 175pp ms, in two volumes) written by Werner [Vernon] David during his internment as an 'enemy alien' in August – December 1940 in the Huyton camp (Liverpool) and Sefton camp in Douglas (Isle of Man), dedicated to and recording his relationship with his girlfriend (and later wife) Joan Storey, interspersed with a retrospective account of his experiences as a chemistry student in the University of Manchester during 1938 – 1939 where he first met and fell in love with fellow student Joan, her help in facilitating his sister Marianne's entry into the UK from Germany (accompanied by his brother Hans, known as Felix), his arrest in July 1940 and initial internment in Prees Heath camp, Shropshire, his later situation as an internee at Huyton and the psychological and physical effects of internment on himself and his fellow prisoners (including suspicion of being 'doped' with sodium bromide), the frequent German air raids in the vicinity of the camp and ARP measures within it, his transfer to Douglas on the Isle of Man in October 1940 in the troop transport RMS LADY OF MANN and accommodation in the former Sefton Hotel on the seafront, his assignment to work as part of the internee kitchen staff and resumption of his interrupted chemistry studies, extensive quotes from Joan's letters to him in the camps, the frustrations of their separation and of his wait for release (having applied to join the Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps), the journal concluding with his sudden release in early December 1940 (with a few loose pages containing an unfinished continuation); two letters (3pp ms, dated 1938/1939) from Werner David's mother to Joan Storey's parents, thanking them for acting as guarantors for her daughter Marianne in the UK and commenting on her own situation and separation from her children; 6 letters (24pp ms, dated between December 1938 - October 1940) from Werner to Joan Storey, including his reactions to the news of his mother's escape from Germany to Belgium in July 1939 and to the outbreak of war in September, a letter written in anticipation of his internment in summer 1940, and two letters written during his internment in Prees Heath and Sefton camps; published account of the historical context of Werner's journal, including his brother Felix's own internment at Prees Heath, Warth Mills and Onchan: 'A Disgraceful Injustice – the internment of Vernon David and Felix Davies in 1940', by Rob David [2014]).

Cataloguer SWW