Ruhleben, which was within a mile of the garrison town of Spandau in Germany, housed some 4,000 men who all happened to be in Germany when a decree was issued that all male British subjects - except clergymen, doctors, lunatics and bed-ridden invalids - between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five, and all British officers of whatever age, whether on the active or the retired lists, should be arrested on the 6th November 1914 and interned.
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