Jersey Our Island: A Brush with the French – Part 4

Published in 1950, this is an interesting snapshot of the Island and its customs as it was in the immediate post-war period, and not without humour. Most guide books of the time give the tourist information, or give the impressions of an outsider to the Island, but this is in "inside view", which is rarer.

Jersey Our Island: A Brush with the French – Part 4
By Sidney Bisson

Hemery rode off to rejoin his regiment. On the way back lie ran into a party of the enemy and was captured. The French took him to one of the boats that was beached at La Rocque, where he would probably have remained if a detachment of Militia had not come on the scene. Seeing that the militiamen were about to fire at the boats, Hemery persuaded his guards to let him go and parley with them, with a view to their holding their fire. As soon as he was free, Hemery rode off to join the troops who were now assembling on Westmount.

Acting on Hemery's message, Campbell promptly got his men under arms and was about to march them to St. Helier when a second messenger arrived with a copy of the capitulation and orders from Major Corbet that he was to offer no resistance to the enemy. Unlike his fellow officers at Elizabeth Castle, Campbell decided to obey the order in spite of pressure from an unexpected source.

The Rev. Francis Le Couteur, Rector of St. Martin, was evidently something of an amateur soldier. He had bought, for his own amusement, a couple of cannon, which he tended with as much care as a professional artilleryman. He must often have wondered, as he polished their barrels in the rectory garden, whether an opportunity would ever come to use them. Now that the opportunity arose, he had the guns dragged in all haste to Fort Conway, where he too presently appeared upon the scene. Greatly to his disappointment he found that Campbell had accepted the capitulation and was determined to obey Corbet's last order to the letter.

The Rector expostulated. He knew the enemy's dispositions. Only a small party had been left behind to guard the ships and the captured battery at La Rocque. It would not be difficult to dislodge them. Campbell protested that he must obey his orders.

Without more success Mr. Le Couteur tried to persuade him that the orders of a captured commander were worthless and should be disregarded. Then he appealed to Campbell's vanity. `Think of the honour you will lose,' he argued, `if some other unit gets there before you and captures the position.' The Scots- man must have smiled at the country clergyman's dialectic. Finding him unresponsive, Mr. Le Couteur appealed to Lieu- tenant Robertson, his second in command, who pointed out that he dare not run the risk of being court-martialled for disobedience and probably losing his commission, which would ruin him for fife. Once again the Rector had an argument. He was a wealthy man and would see that Robertson was suitably recompensed if he were dismissed the service.

And so the argument went on, until finally a message arrived from Major Peirson, stating that he had decided to ignore the capitulation order and was about to attack the enemy. Safe in the eyes of Military Law, Campbell hesitated no longer. He divided his troops into two parties and advanced on the battery at La Rocque. Lieutenant Robertson's party, swelled by a detachment of Militia whom they met on the way, arrived there first to find about a hundred Frenchmen drawn up in four ranks. Halting his men a dozen yards away, Robertson called on them to surrender, but seeing that they were about to open fire he let them have the first volley. As soon as it was returned he ordered his men to fix bayonets, charged, and captured the post with a loss of seven killed and a few wounded. The Rector's guns do not seem to have been brought into action, which must have disappointed him considerably.

Major Peirson was buried in the. Parish Church of St. Helier. Rullecourt, who died of his wounds the same day, lies in a corner of the churchyard.