Now back to more serious stuff. As you know, several French Generals were brought to this country as prisoners of war and were paroled at a number of towns across England. Among the Generals who I know came to these shores were three I have already mentioned in General Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes, General Lejeune and General d'Henin in Cheltenham, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Chesterfield respectively. Others I know of were Cambronne (Ashburton), Jean-Baptiste Brunet (Leek), Donatien-Marie-Joseph Rochambeau, (Norman Cross), Remi-Joseph-Isidore Exelmans, Francois-Bertrand Dufour, Pierre-Francois Boyer, Ythier-Silvain Pryve (all at Chesterfield) Eduoard-Francois Simon, and Louis Vasserot . If you can tell me the paroled towns for the last two mentioned soldiers, it would be greatly appreciated especially if you have cuttings from any local papers which have appeared down the years.

Lefebvre-Desnouettes as already mentioned, was captured at Benevente, d'Henin was taken while at sea in the man of war "Duquesne" off Santo Domingo in July 1803, Lejeune, Pryve, Exelmans, Simon and Dufour were all captured in Spain. Pryve and Dufour as a result of Baylen, the others at different times and places, Vasserot and Boyer were at sea on the frigates "La Loire" and "La Franchise" respectively. Rochambeau was also captured at sea en-route from Santo Domingo to France. Cambronne was of course, taken at Waterloo.

General Francois-Amable Ruffin was seriously wounded and captured at Chiclana in Spain on 5th March 1811. He was transported in the "Gorgon" but died when the ship reached Portsmouth roads on the approach to the harbour.

This is not a complete list of Generals held captive. Can you put a name to any of the others please? Apart from those parole centres already mentioned, Paul Chamberlain tells me there were others at Louth, Plymouth, Watford, Southampton, Lichfield, Stafford, Tiverton, Launceston, Chatham, Portsmouth and Moretonhampstead. If you live in any of these areas and can put names to any French Generals that were detained in your town, your assistance again would be most welcome.