Hello,
I was wondering if there are any registers (lists) of french prisoners during the Peninsular War.
French prisoners were often taken to P.O.W. camps in England (aboard prison ships) to be held captive until the end of the napoleonic wars in 1814/15.
Did the British keep an inventory of the French soldiers aboard these ships / inside these P.O.W. camps ?
And so, where could I find these lists ?
Many thanks in advance.
Boris
You can find some of the registers (maybe all) on the Findmypast.co.uk subscription website, but there are thousands of records to go through. It is of interest to me because of my interest in Maucune's division who feature in my book 'Wellington at Bay'. In writing this book I went through 100,000 records to find the 100 or so men who were captured at Villamuriel. The other source is the Registre's Matricules which are available online, I used these to cross check the findings from the POW records, because the British clerks did not always get the French names correct - you face a big task.
Loads in the national archives in Kew for example http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/browse/C2689133?v=r
Of interest
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1989/