Military

November 1758: Thomas Saumarez captures the Belliqueux

Captain Thomas Saumarez, RN, uncle of Admiral James Saumarez, had a surprisingly easy time when taking possession of the French ship Belliqueux. As a reward he was made commander of the ship and took her on a campaign to the West Indies, but was forced to retire through ill-health. From Sir John Ross' Memoirs and correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, 1838.

Shock and awe: Thomas Phillips and the Hellburner Infernal, 1693

Thomas Phillips illustrated the famous Legge Report, a survey of the Channel islands completed in 1680. His return to the island he had so carefully studied was to prove fatal to him.

October 1836: Duncan Allez of the Anglo-Spanish Legion

A letter from the Star, October 31, 1836, describing a skirmish at Emetza. The Adjutant-General of this Legion at this time was Gaspard Le Marchant, son of Major General John Gaspard Le Marchant, and it is presumably he who had his horse killed under him, as the letter describes. The Priaulx Library recently acquired an Order Book of this regiment which covers the period during which the Legion was at San Sebastian, a town on the north coast of Spain; Le Marchant signs all the orders. The Anglo-Spanish Legion was a voluntary force put together by the British army at the request of the Spanish to help them in a civil war which arose because of a contested succession to the Spanish throne. The Orders in our book are dated 4 Jun 1836, until 30 March 1837 and are all issued from San Sebastian.

September 1649: Colonel Popham hunts a Prince

Colonel Edward Popham reports on his search for Prince Charles, who was suspected of attempting to take refuge in Jersey, which he had already visited in 1646. Popham must have missed him, because Charles did find his way to Jersey in that month, and stayed until February of 1650.

4 July 1944: Von Euch, fuer Euch, Kameraden!

Warning Fermain Bay Carel Toms Collection Priaulx Library

Guernsey, a poem by Oberleutnant Burkert. From Deutsche Guernsey Zeitung, the newspaper of the occupying forces. The photographs above and below from the Library Collection show mine warnings at Fermain Bay and anti-landing defences at Saints Bay.

Sarnia

A poem from the Mercure newspaper, 20 October 1810.

Bailiwick Prisoners-of-War, 1813

A letter from Paris, dated 3 July 1813, to Harry Dobree, who organised collections for the welfare of the prisoners. [From the Gazette de Guernesey, September 13, 1813.]

The pride of the Iris, from the Star, December 14, 1858

The horrible death of 21-year old Guernseyman Lieutenant Edward Murray Tupper, RN, in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu).

100 men lost: HMS Boreas, 28 November 1807

James Saumarez' account of the loss of the 28-gun frigate Boreas, wrecked on the Hanois rocks on November 28th, 1807. This disaster was one of the major factors in the eventual decision to erect a lighthouse there. The number of men who died is uncertain; 77 were saved. Captain Robert Scott's wife is also said to have been drowned. From Cobbett's Political Register, Vol. 12, 1807, p. 928.

A barbarous murder: June, 1795

As printed in the Gazette de l'Ile de Guernesey.

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