Napoleon’ s men on the run from Perth Prison

Napoleon’s lost legions were the cunning instigators of some great escapes from Perth Prison.

The prison’s old C Hall was part of the original Perth Prison which housed the French prisoners when it was known as the Depot.

Built in 1811-12, its original purpose was to accommodate 7,000 French prisoners from the Napoleonic Wars.

Quarrymen and carters were advertised for on September 5 1811 and 11 months later it was complete after costing £130,000 to build.

At the peak of activity, 1,500 men worked on its construction and much of the stone used came from Kingoodie Quarry at Invergowrie.

Incidentally, there was a strike for higher wages while it was being built and when it was full it held more French prisoners than anywhere else in Britain.

The Auld Alliance was reflected in the attitude of the local people to the prisoners.

When the first 400 were landed at Dundee by the transport Matilda, from Plymouth, in August 1812, kindly women gave the prisoners bread and water.

A detachment of the Renfrewshire Militia provided the escort for the trek up the Carse to Perth.

Some of the Frenchmen were accommodated overnight in a church at Inchture.

After they left in the morning the beadle – or church official – discovered that two mort cloths were missing.

He pursued the party to Perth and knapsacks were searched.

The culprit was sentenced to 24 lashes with the rope’s end. He fainted after six or seven but the punishment was completed.

Captain EJ Moriarty, who was in charge of the Depot, allowed the French prisoners to hold markets.

IMPOSING: The entrance to Perth Prison, formerly the Depot, in the mid 20th Century, and

They bought such luxuries as they could afford and sold toys and other ingeniously constructed items they had made with odds and ends.

By December there were 4,626 prisoners in Perth and by January 21 1813 there were 6,788 which was only 12 fewer than the building was designed for.

The sailors, who included privateer captains and crews, were by the nature of their calling, a daring and resourceful bunch.

After tunnelling or climbing out of prison, they instinctively headed for the sea in the hope of getting hold of a ship.

There is only one recorded instance of a successful getaway from the country by sea when three men got out over the wall on a foggy January morning.

They reached Broughty Ferry and succeeded in buying bread and spirits from a house in Forthill.

Newspaper reports indicated an absence of the fear and hatred generated by more recent conflicts.

Apparently the suspicions of the Forthill family were not aroused by

the foreign accents of their visitors.

Down at the waterfront the trio on the run managed to steal the fishing boat Nancy and sailed away to possible freedom.

The most ambitious escapee was a former privateer captain who toyed with the idea of stealing a “London boat” from the crude and muddy Dundee harbour.

The Fife Packet – 94 tons – was no giant, but she had aboard a full cargo of linens valued at £16,000 for the London market.

Four men, headed by the

captain, boarded her silently during the night, but could not get her off the mud.

In search of a softer target, they doubled back to Kingoodie, where they boarded a sloop used to ferry stone to Dundee.

The owner, Captain Mustard, found two of the men hiding under a sail – and it was back to Perth and captivity for the four men.

The most elusive Frenchman of the lot, a tunneller, reached Montrose, where he was put under lock and key a painting of Napoleon at the Battle of Wagram in 1809.

before he could interfere with shipping.

He got away after picking three locks and headed inland but was recaptured near Alyth.

As the Depot at Perth did not seem tight enough to hold him it was decided to transfer him to another prison at Penicuik.

A sergeant and seven soldiers were detailed as an escort. They deposited him overnight in the jail at Kirkcaldy.

By morning he had gone again to hard-earned freedom.

When the war was temporarily over, and Napoleon was banished to the island of Elba, French prisoners refused to believe their hero had been defeated until they were released.

By July 1814 they had all left although some sadly died in captivity.

All of the French prisoners were repatriated after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and thousands of Perth people turned out to wave them off.

After his defeat and dethroning in 1814, Napoleon came to an agreement with the

coalition of nations that had taken him down and left France for Elba.

He subsequently escaped and returned to Europe to relaunch his bid to conquer the Continent, which ultimately ended in his defeat and exile to the island of St Helena where he died.

Letters which have surfaced in Scotland and acquired by Perth-based historian and author Norman Watson reveal Napoleon as a depressed recluse and “pretty much in the huff” during his captivity on St Helena.

By 1842, the Depot had begun service as a civilian prison.

In September 1930 a memorial plaque was unveiled to mark the burial ground of French prisoners of war who died in Perth between 1811 and 1814.

Unveiled by William Anderson, the Secretary of State for Scotland, the plaque read: “Near this spot was interned a number of French prisoners of war who died in military capacity at Perth about the year 1812.”

It is Scotland’s prison. oldest

Letters reveal Napoleon as “depressed” on St Helena.