Excerpt from French Prisoners Lodges

The existence of Freemasons' Lodges amongst French Prisoners of War has long been known to the reading Members of the Fraternity. Ranging over a period of about sixty years, they were established from time to time in many parts of Great Britain, for wherever a large number of prisoners were collected together, there would probably be sufficient Freemasons amongst them to open and work a Lodge.

A considerable number of these Prisoners' Lodges were established by the French soldiers and sailors captured during the Napoleonic wars, and confined in Great Britain, in British Colonies or in towns temporarily occupied by the British forces.

At that time Freemasonry was exceedingly popular in the French army, many Regiments having Lodges attached to them, it was therefore only natural, that during their enforced idleness, the Freemasons amongst the prisoners should seek to relieve the monotony of their existence, by devoting some portion of their time to the working of the Masonic ceremonies in Lodges established by themselves.

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