This is the shako of an officer in the Douanes Imperiales (French Imperial Customs Service), 1804 pattern. It is topped with a plume of green and white feathers (ZBA9976.2) springing from a painted rosette in the colours of the French tricolour. Attached to the front of the shako is metal badge with the French Imperial Eagle above the inscription ‘Douanes Imperiales’. There is the corresponding chin scales (ZBA9976.3), which has been separated.

The Douanes enforced customs regulations, investigated smugglers, intercepted spies, and patrolled the French coastline. Under the Ancien Régime, such tasks had been carried out by the Ferme Générale, a private company which collected taxes on behalf of the king (plus hefty bonus for themselves). After the French Revolution, the National Assembly abolished the Ferme Générale and established a new national customs service, the Douanes. This new institution was designed to look like and function as a military body, complete with its own military-style uniform in ‘finance green’, which was first introduced in 1800. Napoleon transformed the Douanes into an imperial directorate (as symbolised in the Imperial Eagles which adorn this shako) and sent them to the frontlines in the war against Britain. Hundreds of customs officers were deployed along thousands of kilometres of coastline, from the Mediterranean to the Netherlands, to enforce an embargo on British imports as part of Napoleon’s (ultimately unsuccessful) plan to cut off British economically. To this day, the French customs service retains its military character.

The importance of this particular shako is greatly increased by the remarkable story attached to it. It was part of a uniform that Charles Hare – a nineteen-year-old midshipman in the Royal Navy – used in August 1809 to escape from in Sarre Libre (now Saarlouis), where he was being held as a prisoner of war. The Museum also holds a coat (ZBA9975) and cross-belt plate (ZBA9977) from this uniform, as well as the shako.

Hare had been captured in 1803, after the ship in which he was serving – the Minerve, a fifth-rate frigate – had become stranded near Cherbourg. The officers, including Midshipman Hare, were sent to the prisoner-of-war fortress at Verdun, where they gave their parole and were in return permitted to move freely about the town. Hare remained in this situation for three to four years, expecting to be exchanged for a French officer of equal standing in accordance with the honourable customs of 18th-century warfare. However, during the Napoleonic Wars, negotiations for exchange broke down as Napoleon refused to release any British captives. Realising there was little prospect of exchange, Hare and his fellow officers did the gentlemanly thing and formally rescinded their parole, effectively announcing their desire to escape. In response, they were transferred to the penal fortress at Sarre Libre. Hare managed to make several acquaintances around the fortress and to gain permission to take a daily stroll around the town. Through his friends, he gathered the materials for his escape, including false papers and the uniform of which this shako was part. He was also coached on what to say if stopped. After making his escape, he travelled through France via carriage and boat, knowing that, if caught in the act of impersonating a French officer, he would be executed as a spy. He eventually arrived at Rotterdam, where Dutch fishermen rowed him to the British ships blockading Walcheren. The Museum holds a written narrative of this extraordinary escape (BGY/H/14/3/1), which makes clear the importance of the uniform in the success of his escape. On numerous occasions, he was able to convince civilians and military personnel of his false identity. Napoleon’s widespread deployment of the Douanes worked to Hare’s advantage: officers of the Douanes were a common sight throughout France in this period and Hare encountered several on his journey, all of whom greeted him as a comrade, thanks to his uniform. While not the only British prisoner of war who escaped from one of Napoleon’s prisons, he is the only individual known to have impersonated a French officer to do so.