Another story about English POWs
in the Napoleonic Wars is known as
“the Amity biscuit.” According to
Masonic Quarterly Magazine, a French
captain named Jacques le Bon captured
an English soldier and, upon learning
that he was a fellow Mason, released
him. In addition, le Bon presented the
English soldier with a small dog that
had been owned by another English
Mason who had been captured. The
dog had a biscuit suspended from its
neck – a symbol that le Bon would not
keep a brother’s dog in bondage, let
alone the brother himself. This biscuit,
mounted and framed, is reportedly
a prized possession of the Lodge of
Amity No. 137 in Poole.
“”… it is difficult to conceive of the difficulties under which our imprisoned brethren struggled to maintain and demonstrate their fraternal fidelity, but not at all difficult to understand. Masonry to them was far more than a fraternal link; it was a vital and living key to continued existence.
in association with the Grand Orient
of France. Some of the lodges had
names to reflect their circumstances –
such as Loge de l’Esperance (lodge of
hope), Loge de l’Infortunes (lodge of
the unfortunate ones), and Loge de la
Paix Desiree (lodge of hope for peace).
In addition to attending their own
lodges in the parole towns, Thorp
writes, the French officer POWs
visited the local lodges of English
Freemasons, where they were received
with fraternal affection and sometimes
became joining members. English
Freemasons, likewise, sometimes
attended the French POW lodges.
Outside of the officer ranks,
however, POW conditions were far less
sanguine. These other French soldiers
and sailors were confined in actual
prisons and decommissioned ships,
called “prison hulks” or “floating
prisons.” Nevertheless, the Masons
among these POWs still found ways to
form a lodge.
On the Guildford prison hulk
anchored in Portsmouth Harbor, for
example, the brothers reportedly met
deep in the hull of the ship – in an
area so small that men couldn’t stand
erect and so dark that brothers had
to feel their way by hand through the
belly of the ship. In his book “Histoire
des Pontons,” Monsier A. Lardier, who
attended that lodge as a prisoner and
visiting brother, wrote that the master
presided from a rickety three-legged
bench that he struggled to keep stable,
while the rest of the brethren sat on
the floor. In this makeshift lodge,
Lardier observed a degree ceremony
as well as a voluntary offering for the
relief of other prisoners.
English prisoners in
France
Meanwhile, during the same
period, thousands of English soldiers
were taken prisoner by the French, and
the Masons among them remained
active in the craft. According to
Thorp, many of the English prisoners
attended French lodges as guests,
while some English military lodges
continued to operate in captivity.
One was Lodge No. 183, which
continued to meet even after its
members were captured by the French
in 1805 and held until 1814 in the
fortress of Valenciennes. In fact,
the degree certificates of an English
POW named John Blade – who in
1806 was initiated in this lodge while
imprisoned at Valenciennes – are part
of the collection at the Grand Lodge of
California’s Henry W. Coil Library and
Museum of Freemasonry. According
to the lodge’s book of minutes, which is
catalogued at the library of the United
Grand Lodge of England, Lodge No.
183 at one time had more than 120
active members in captivity.
Surviving and thriving
Clearly, some bonds are blind to
the passions of warfare, and Masonry
seems to be one of them. Brother
Robert M. Walker, in a 1964 article
from The New Age magazine, put
it like this: “Today, as we sit in our
comfortable halls … it is difficult
to conceive of the difficulties
under which our imprisoned
brethren struggled to maintain and
demonstrate their fraternal fidelity,
but not at all difficult to understand.
Masonry to them was far more than a
fraternal link; it was a vital and living
key to continued existence.”
