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Knockaloe Charitable Trust

Pilates' observation of feral cats moving around the camp – and how they stayed in condition on meagre rations – was said to be fundamental in the development of his technique, which he called Contrology. With resistance, balance and poise critical to the discipline, it shared many qualities with gymnastics, of which there was an eager following at Knockaloe.

Physical exercise – necessarily confined to small-area sports such as boxing or gymnastics – were common at the camp, such as this gymnastics demonstration in 1915, which took place not long after Pilates arrived.

A view inside one of the internment huts, painted by a resident. Life at the camp was basic, but there was a culture of sorts – with an orchestra, sports clubs, a library and various artists circles within the 3-mile boundary wire of the camp.

A closer view of accommodation at Knockaloe, where male prisoners of British opposition nationalities between the ages of 17 and 55 were interned during World War I – an act spurred on by the sinking of the civilian ship Lusitania by Germany in 1915, causing local protests against the presence of German civilians in Britain. Joseph Pilates arrived in 1915.

Knockaloe internment camp, Isle of Man, as it was in 1915. At peak capacity, the camp – described as kriegsfangenenlager, or 'prisoner-of-war camp' in the caption of this image, drawn by an internee – contained over 23,000 civilians. Most were German, with some Austrian-Hungarian and a small number of Turkish internees. Pilates was believed to have occupied camp 4, in the foreground of this drawing.