Confrontation at Blargies Prison Camp

Date: August 28, 1916 • Location: Paris, France

A confrontation at Blargies prison camp in France led to a charge of mutiny for New Zealand private John Braithwaite, for which he was later executed.

Blargies prison camp was a British military prison in Blargies, France, during the First World War. By 1916 it housed around 300 prisoners in 25 tents. Conditions in the camp were harsh, partly by design to avoid soldiers viewing imprisonment as an attractive alternative to service on the front line. The refusal by some prisoners to work led to confrontations between guards and prisoners and two men were sentenced to death for separate mutinies at the camp in 1916.