TWO hundred years ago this month when the little ship ?Pickle? brought the news of Nelson?s fatal injury back to England, and when at this time more than 1,100 Devon men were fighting in the Napoleonic wars, Devon was also to harbour very many French prisoners of war. Many were imprisoned in the rotting hulks on the Hamoaze at Plymouth, but by 1809 the new prison at Princetown had been built and 2,500 Frenchmen were marched up to their new quarters. Sick and diseased, they spent one night en route at Durance near Meavy, then lived the next six years at Princetown In all, the prison was to hold 5,000 men ? though built to hold 10,000. In 1812 this included American sailors. There were also parole French officers who were billeted in Okehampton, likewise in Moretonhampstead, they were in honour bound to keep within a mile radius of the town. Two French headstones can be found in Okehampton churchyard, one in memory of a mother and infant, the other to a lawyer. Fortunately, the names were deciphered by the late Dave Brewer, before becoming almost illegible. Another French name is carved on Okehampton Castle wall above the piscina . . . ?Hic V . . . fuit captivus belli? (Here Vincent was prisoner of war). Gilles A Vincent was in one of three batches of prisoners between 1809-12. An aide surgeon on man of war ?La Rejoime? captured June 1809 he was received on parole in Okehampton June 29 1809 and discharged to Oswestry February 13 1812. During this period the Spanish painter Goya would have been depicting the horrors of the Spanish/Napoleonic wars at which sometime later the young Duke of Wellington successfully campaigned. After the battle at Waterloo in 1815 all prisoners, both French and American were repatriated. Anne Crampton 2 Oaklands Park Okehampton
