A handwritten manuscript detailing the daring escape of a British prisoner of Napoleon’s troops – with the flamboyant French uniform in which he disguised himself as he fled – have gone on display at the National Maritime Museum in London after being carefully preserved for more than two centuries by the prisoner’s descendants.
The “rare and very special” uniform, including its tall and exuberantly feathered hat, was worn in August 1809 by the 19-year-old naval midshipman Charles Hare as he escaped a military prison in what is now western Germany and travelled by coach, river boat, ship and on foot back to his home in Lincolnshire, accompanied by his pet dog.
