Published: Friday, 6th November, 2009 11:00am

From Reading to the people of Denmark

by Adam Hewitt

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READING and Denmark celebrated renewed relations at a ceremony dedicated to the town's Napoleonic prisoners of war.

A party arrived from Denmark for the rededication ceremony to one of the PoWs at the Minster Church of St Mary's in the Butts last Thursday, joined by Reading people of Danish descent.

The 100 guests walked into the Minster past two burly soldiers in full period dress from a re-enactment society representing the 3rd East Kent Regiment, whose Colonel-in-Chief is the Queen of Denmark.

Among them were the Danish defence attache in Britain, Captain Niels Erik Sørensen, the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire Mary Bayliss and Lars Flyvholm, managing director of Winnersh-based Danish technology firm Bang and Olufsen, which sponsored the rededication.

There was music from Kevin Duggan, the British director of music at a church in Rønne, Denmark. The 600 'Gentleman Danes', so called for their good behaviour, were on parole in Reading in the early 1800s after being taken prisoner during the Napoleonic wars.

Nobody knows why Reading was picked as a 'prison', but townspeople were given financial incentives to inform on them and to accuse the Danes of trying to escape - although this was never a problem.

Historian John Nixon from Aldermaston said: "Everyone turned a blind eye - nobody felt like turning in a Dane. They were able to live a totally normal life and were very prominent in the town."

They went to dances, played sport, studied and read - and were eventually granted an amnesty in 1809. A little-known monument to one of them, Laurenthes Braag, attached to the outer wall of the church, was refurbished with cash raised by Reading Civic Society.

People at the service heard a little about the background to the war, which was sparked not by animosity but because Denmark "backed the wrong horse" in Napoleon.

Captain Sørensen said: "It's no secret that our two nations were not the best of friends 200 years ago."

But he added: "As a serving Danish officer, I would like to thank you for the way your ancestors treated our sailors as Danish PoWs."

Civic society chairman, Richard Bennett, said: "We were grateful that so many people were able to join us and especially descendants of two of the prisoners, Birgith Braag Winther and Dorte Bodenhoff, and Per and Ida Bjerg from the museum on the island of Fano, and others who travelled from so far to be with us for the event."