Author uncovers Reading’s Scandinavian connection
A WOODLEY author with a keen eye for detail has published a book about Danish and Norwegian prisoners of war in Reading.
The Gentleman Danes, by John Dixon, tells the story of how almost 600 Scandinavian men came to the town as prisoners between 1807 and 1814.
They were captured during the latter stages of the Napoleonic
Wars, which saw the twin kingdom of Denmark-Norway side with the French Empire against a coalition of other European states, including Great Britain. This left Denmark-Norway’s sizeable merchant navy vulnerable to capture by enemy fleets.
John’s interest in the period came after he spotted a plaque on a wall of Reading Minster.
“I stopped out of curiosity to read it many years ago,” he explains.
“And I saw that it commemorates the life of Laurenthes Braag, a 26-year-old Danish merchant who died in 1808, while a prisoner of war in Reading.”
John had recently returned to the UK having lived in Denmark for six years.
“I guess with me being able to read Danish, this was a story waiting for me to come along and tell it,” he adds.
As he began to research how
Braag came to be in Reading, John discovered that the town was unusual for receiving Danish and Norwegian PoWs during the wars. Most other towns received French men.
Crew captured from an estimated 1,400 Danish-Norwegian vessels would have been held on prison hulk ships. They had little chance of release. Those sent to Reading were privileged crew members; they were mostly high-ranking merchant navy officers or military officers.
“Prisoners considered to be gentlemen could live as free citizens
in the towns where they were sent, they could even get jobs. They just weren’t allowed to escape,” John says.
In the course of his research, which took him to museums and archives in Denmark, Norway and the UK, John discovered the memoirs of Hans Birch Dahlerup in the Royal Danish Naval Library.
Dahlerup was captured and sent to Reading three times between 1808 and 1814. He later became a baron and an admiral.
“His memoirs have many anecdotes about what life was like for the PoWs in Reading,” John explains.
“For example, some formed a weekly dancing club with washerwomen’s daughters and a number of them married local women and stayed here after the war was over.”
The hardback book is based around Dahlerup’s memoirs. It costs £30 and is available from Reading Museum shop or soaringkite.co.uk