Published: Thursday, 29th October, 2009 9:00am

PoW memorial dedication brings the Danes to town

by Adam Hewitt

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Restoration work on the monument

READING is the focus of a Danish invasion today (Thursday) - celebrating the lives of the town's Gentleman Dane prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Chronicle has been following the efforts of Reading Civic Society to refurbish the monument to one Dane, Laurenthes Braag, on the outer wall of St Mary's Minister in the Butts (pictured).

The work was finished in August and at today's rededication ceremony guests include the Danish defence attache in Britain, Captain Niels Erik Sørensen; the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire Mary Bayliss; the managing director of Danish audio and technology firm Bang and Olufsen Lars Flyvholm and historian John Nixon from Aldermaston who has done much of the work digging up the real story behind the hundreds of Danish PoWs confined to Reading in the early 1800s.

Richard Bennett, chairman of Reading Civic Society, said: "The monument had become almost illegible. We thought the story deserved to be heard more widely."

Other guests are travelling from Denmark, including descendants of Laurenthes Braag, who has come to stand for all the PoWs.

He was born on July 21, 1783, on the island of St Croix in what was then the Danish West Indies and 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 generally treated well and had many freedoms.

- FOR pictures of the event see next week's Chronicle.