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General => Armed Forces => Armed Forces Resources => Topic started by: Megatill on Sunday 28 October 18 01:37 GMT (UK)
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Has anyone found any information regarding the Norman Cross POW Depot, near Yaxley, Huntingdonshire during 1796-1815?
I have found:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cross (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cross)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43487/43487-0.txt (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43487/43487-0.txt)
https://archive.org/details/depotforprisoner00walkuoft/page/n9 (https://archive.org/details/depotforprisoner00walkuoft/page/n9)
but little else (as yet) on the Internet.
Norman Cross was built in late 1796 and was managed by the "Royal Navy Transport Board".
I am specifically trying to determine a possible "VICTUALLER" to the Depot and I am starting to think that this research will come to nought.
My ancestor was John TOWNSEND, thought to have been connected with the Royal Navy and was reported in Census and other sources as a Victualler. He married in Yaxley in 1804.
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Hubbard - French POW in England during Napoleonic Wars - Message ...
https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx?mv=flat&m=139&p=topics
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Thank you, solidrock.
Sadly the link didn't complete ("Error retrieving message"). Is the URL complete?
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Found the link a different way:
https://www.ancestry.com/boards/topics.Military.french/139.1.1.1/mb.ashx (https://www.ancestry.com/boards/topics.Military.french/139.1.1.1/mb.ashx)
Obviously a change to the URL due to the RootsWeb outage in 2017...
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"Victualler" usually suggests an innkeeper.
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I agree, ShaunJ - the word Victualler does usually mean Innkeeper - but in this case it more probably means "supplying food, beverages and other provisions for the crew of a vessel at sea."
That definition would fit in to Victualling the Norman Cross POW Depot as it was being run under the auspices of The Royal Navy Transport Board .
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There is an excellent Time Team dig for the POW camp, including images. Otherwise, prisoners were kept on 'hulks' by the coasts. This was pestilential, large numbers of men kept in confined spaces, must have been the gaol fever, ie typhus, also endemic in normal prisons. Porchester Castle (Roman), still there, was a POW camp. Seen an image, wooden huts and all, Stalag 1a? ;D.
Actually, Dartmoor was constructed as a POW camp, but probably not completed by end of the Wars.
Added: French sailor POW's used to make models of their ships from the bones of their meat rations. Stunning. Probably closed 1814. Returned prisoners probably fought at Waterloo.
Best for starters, find Time Team prog. on You Tube. Series 17 Episode 4.
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Oooh! I love Time Team, Regorian - thank you so much for reminding me - though I must admit I have no remembrance of seeing the Episode on the POW dig... I shall immediately view it.