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** GUILDFORD (SURREY) - P.O.W. ON PAROLE COVER TO CORSICA CARRIED BY RETURNING FRENCH OFFICER; 2 May 1814 EL from General Aime Rebuffa on parole in "Guilford" [sic] to his brother-in-law in "Bastia en Corse" posted in Caen with a partly fine "19/CAEN" mark and charged "13" (decimes) on the front, having a boxed Bastia arrival d.s. of 7 June on the reverse. The contents mention a letter just received after more than 6 months in transit (during which time Napoleon had abdicated and the mail system for POWs was clearly disrupted), and include; "The bearer of the present is a petty officer who returns [to France] as an invalid; while I am not going with him, I still hope that by the end of the month, at the latest, I will be free.". This is the only recorded letter from a POW in Guildford, and a rare example of a letter carried (against the rules) by a returning POW. [See MFPWE, p.177.]Cross Reference: SURREY, FRANCE, MILITARY - P.O.W. MAIL
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