Published: Friday, 21st August, 2009 9:00am
Denmark's full marks
by Adam Hewitt
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Restorer Michael Eastham, Canon Brian Shenton and Richard Bennett, chairman of Reading Civic Society with the completed memorial.
READING will turn a shade Danish for the day in memory of the Napoleonic prisoners of war confined to the town in the early 1800s.
Restoration work has just been completed to reinvigorate a fading monument to one of the hundreds of Danish PoWs on parole in Reading at the time, Laurentius Braag, which sits on the south wall of St Mary's Minister in the Butts.
Reading Civic Society, which commissioned the £1,300 restoration work, is now getting in touch with the Danish Embassy ahead of a rededication party on Thursday, October 29 to mark 200 years since the 200 PoWs were granted an amnesty coinciding with George III's golden jubilee in 1909.
Civic Society chairman Richard Bennett said: "It has been a fun project to do, Canon Brian Shenton is really pleased with it."
Laurentius Braag, who has come to stand for all the PoWs, was born on July 21, 1783, on the island of St Croix in what was then the Danish West Indies. He died in Reading on September 3, 1808.
Britain was at war with Denmark from 1807-1814, and destroyed the Danish fleet during the Battle of Copenhagen, but the PoWs brought to Reading were treated well and had considerable freedom.
Research by John Nixon from Aldermaston has shown that the Danes on parole received financial support from many high-flyers in Reading society, including some of the town's best known families - the Blandys, Simeons, Valpys, Simonds and Liebenroods.
Some even called them the prisoners the Gentleman Danes because of their good behaviour.
Mr Bennett said the society was getting stuck into planning the celebration event in October, adding said: "It will be as Danish an event as possible, with food and drink, and Canon Shenton will fly the Danish flag.
"We will be inviting representation from the Danish Embassy and John Nixon is finding people in Denmark with links to prisoners. I am also writing to the Governor of the Island of St Croix and their local newspaper to let them know what we have been up to."
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Ligia Jamieson
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Sep 4 09 13:40
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Kudos to Mr. Nixon for his research.
Barbie Thompson
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Sep 9 09 15:44
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Very interested in this. I attended a French Service on 24th May 2009 to commemorate the bi-centennial of French POWs arriving at Dartmoor Prison. Will try to make it to Reading as well if open to general public.
RIchard Bennett
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Sep 13 09 11:30
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Thanks to Barbie for contacting me. Whilst our event on the 29th October is by invitation if anyone does have a specific interest in Napolonic Prisoners, and in particular the Danish ones, we can arrange for an invitation to be forwarded. My tele no is 0118 9598350
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