Prisoners at Perth

“I enjoyed the recent excellent article about French prisoners of war and the depot which became Perth Prison which housed them,” says Donald Abbott of Invergowrie.

“In his 1923 book Romance in Gowrie, the Rev Adam Philip of Longforgan Free Church tells of ‘the French prisoners’ and explains that ‘the depot in Perth (built of Kingoodie stone) was meant to contain 7,000 men – 6,000 in the prison proper and about 1,000 petty officers and invalids.

“The first detachment of 399 prisoners arrived in August 1812. They were brought to Dundee on the transport Matilda. They had halted overnight at Inchture, arriving at Perth at 8 am.

“He explains that: ‘at the depot the prisoners slept in hammocks suspended from rails and posts, the sick being accommodated with cradles.

“During certain hours of the day, the prisoners were allowed to sell their

bijouteries to the public from whom they were kept separate by an iron railing. They were allowed also to purchase the necessaries and some of the comforts of life.’

“The book says that, while moored in Dundee, the skipper of one of the Kingoodie quarry barges which transported stone to Yeaman Shore in the city, Captain Mustard discovered two French prisoners on board.

“They had undermined the wall of the Perth depot, escaped, and had been living on turnips from the fields. They were returned to Perth, but the skipper refused the reward for their recapture on the grounds that the government would have simply recovered the monies from the prisoners’ allowances.”