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Above
A tracing board made
by French POWs
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During the period known at the Napoleonic
wars (1793 circa 1814) there were up to
122,000 enemy sailors and soldiers held
in captivity. The officers were held in 50
parole towns from Abergaveny, Bishop’s
Castle through to Wincanton. The bulk
of the prisoners were held in rotten hulks
on the rivers around the UK as well as in
the city goals.
There were between 200-300 prisoners
per town, and before any officer was
allowed to reside in a parole town he was
required to sign a document promising to
observe certain rules. Having done this he
was said to be “on parole.” This took the
following form:
whereas the commissioners for conducting His
Majesty’s transport service and for the care and
custody of French officers and Sailors detained in
England have been pleased to grant…leave to
reside in…upon condition that he gives his parole
of honour not to withdraw one mile from the
boundaries prescribed there without leave for that
purpose from the said Commissioners, that he will
behave himself decently and with due regard to the
laws of the kingdom, and that he will not directly
or indirectly hold any correspondence with France
during his continuance in England, but by such
letter or letters as shall be shown to the agent of the
said commissioners under whose care he is or may
be in order to their being read and approved by the
superiors, he does hereby declare that having given
his parole we will keep it inviolably.
In all parole towns the following notice was
posted in prominent positions.
Notice is hereby given
That all such prisoners of war are permitted to
walk or ride on the great turnpike road within the
distance of one mile from the extreme parts of the
town (not beyond the bounds of the parish) and
if they shall exceed such limits or go into any field
or cross-road they may be taken up and sent to
prison, and a reward of ten shillings will be paid
by the agent for the apprehending them. And
further that such prisoners are to be in their
lodgings by 5 o’clock in the winter and 8 in the
summer months, and if they stay out later they
are liable to be taken up and sent to the agent for
such misconduct.
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However, during 1810-1812 some 462
officers broke their parole and escaped to
France, and of these, 310 escaped in one
year (1812), but abroad not one British
Freemason officer had broken his parole.
However, the French prisoners were held
in ‘open prisons’ whereas the British were
held mainly in fortresses and secure castles,
and therefore not readily having of an
opportunity to decamp. The French
authorities did not contribute to the keeping
of their prisoners, whilst the British gave each
French officer half a guinea per week for
sustenance, also being on parole they were
free to find employment locally if they could.
There was even an instance where the
officers became far too successful in business,
whereby they were banned from lace
making, as it was affecting the local trade!
However, the lot of those held in prisons
such as Bristol, Norman Cross or Dartmoor
were much less convivial. Many thousands
of French and indeed American POWs from
the War of Independence died from
starvation or prison fever.
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Copyright 2002-2007
MQ Magazine
Web site created by Mark Griffin
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