Memorial internment camp

About this artwork.

On the corner of the Kempkensberg and the English Camp stands a stone memorial that commemorates the British soldiers interned in Groningen during the First World War, as well as the hospitality of the English Masonic Lodge. The following inscription bears witness to this: “This was the English Camp Timber Town from 1915-1918. The internment camp for more than 1500 British sailors of the First Royal Naval Brigade. 75 years ago on 22 May 1915, the English Masonic Lodge Hospitality system was founded within this camp”.
 
Artist (and also freemason) Jacques Hammes was commissioned by the Freemasons lodge L'Union Provincial in Groningen, to create the monument. The sculpture has three roughly finished sides and resembles a cube, but deviates from this shape because the top is sloping. Both the rough stone and the more or less cubist form are derived from Masonic symbolism. Within the order of Freemasons, each “brother” is given the task of shaping the rough stone of his being into a pure cube.
 
Despite being neutral, the First World War did not pass unnoticed to the Netherlands. In addition to the asylum for some 1 million Belgian refugees in 1914, many foreign soldiers also fled to our country, later. As a result of the international agreements, they had to be interned. They weren't allowed to go home until the war was officially over. The more than 1500 British sailors who fled to the Netherlands following the German invasion of Antwerp eventually ended up in Groningen. Behind the current Mesdagkliniek in Groningen, a barracks camp was set up, which soon became known as the “English Camp” and was called “Timber Town” by the English themselves. 
 
The soldiers were allowed to periodically leave the camp, under guard, but most of the time was spent inside the camp walls. Among the soldiers were a few freemasons, who initially visited the Groningen freemasonry lodge L'Union Provincial. Soon the idea arose to establish a subsidiary lodge of the L'Union Provincial; this became the Hospitality Lodge. In the years that this lodge was active in Groningen, 65 Englishmen were initiated into Freemasonry.

Facts & Figures.

• Design
  Jacques Hammes

• District
  Helpman

• Year of creation
  1990

• Art type
  Monument, Freestanding sculpture

• Material
  Natural stone

• Dimensions
  h 0,90 x b 0,80 x d 0,80 m