By 1909 Richmond barracks had been vacated, and Templemore town council were informed by the War Office that there was ‘no prospect of troops being quartered there in the near future’. However, the period of the First World War (1914–-1918) was a time of great activity for the then Richmond Barracks. At the outbreak of the war the British Government used the Barracks as a huge prisoner of war camp in which during the first years of the war several hundred German prisoners were interned. They were Prussian Guards, considered some of the best soldiers in the German Army. To contain them the two barracks squares were divided into four typical concentration camp compounds surrounded by heavy barbed wire entanglements, each with a high sentry observation tower having a well-sited machine gun and search lights. By the end of 1914 the camp contained over 2,000 German and Austrian prisoners.