Pupils and staff at Ramsey Grammar School are appealing for people with long memories to come forward and help with their latest history project.

The school is about to host its second Tell Me Day, when they will invite possible interviewees to share their childhood memories of internment.

Head of history Andrew Wilkinson is directing the day and Yvonne Cresswell, urator of social history at Manx National Heritage, John Cannan of Ramsey Heritage, and Dr Dina Gusejnova, lecturer in modern history from University of Sheffield will also be taking part.

Mr Wilkinson said: ’Much has been written about the history of internment in the Manx context in the past decades, particularly about the way the experience of internment has been remembered by the internees.

’However, strangely, and despite the availability of wide-ranging research by Manx cultural heritage curators, the Manx experience of internment - particularly, as an aspect of wartime childhood which, in many cases, was defined by the encounters with internees - has not attracted wider public or scholarly interest yet.

’How did Manx children experience the arrival of the so-called enemy aliens? Had any friendships developed, and if not, what were the obstacles? Did the children of those who had lived through the war have any recollections of this strange episode of history?’

’Finding answers to these questions is vital as historians are getting increasingly interested in civilian perspectives on the history of war,’ he said.

The day will be followed by a day of creative writing for young people under the guidance of Alan Craig Wilson, the director of the Young Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction.

Dr Gusejnova is currently on a research project which combines the history of ideas with the social history of internment. In 2016, she also produced a radio programme which features internment for Radio 4.

Ramsey Grammar School wants to invite anyone who would like to share their own or their parents’ memories of childhood at the time of the Second World War to join us at the Tell Me Day event on Thursday, May 4. It would also be interested to hear from any internees or their children about their experiences.

The aim is to create a common pool of memories, which can include anything from recollections of games or toys, schools, or impressions of the arrival of internees, to the ways people may have stayed in touch after the war’s end.

The result should be a short film, an exhibition and some creative writing from pupils.

Anyone who is available on May 4 should contact Andrew Wilkinson on 811100 or email [email protected]