COPPINS Abigail

Historian, archaeologist and curator

University of Warwick, School of Modern Languages and Culture (French)

Research expertise

The social history of prisoners of war in Britain, France and the Caribbean during the long eighteenth century

Contributions

Lieux

Petersfield in Hampshire (and French prisoners of war in the 1790s)

The parole town of Petersfield in Hampshire was one of many towns in Britain that held French prisoners of war during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). With a large population of over 170 prisoners, Petersfield became a small hub of international sociability that transcended wartime enmities.

Parole towns in Britain

During Britain’s war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France (1793-1815), thousands of captured French officers and other captives were placed on parole in towns across the British Isles. Paroled, sometimes for many years, these captives organised social functions, created theatre productions and started Masonic lodges with their British hosts.
Lieux