Charles Laugeard
Jersey's Great War heroes:
Charles Laugeard
Former policeman Charles Laugeard
This is one of a number of articles published by the Jersey Evening Post on 10 November 2018, the day before the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War. They tell the stories of a number of Jerseymen and Jerseywomen who were distinguished by their bravery during the war. Some survived to recount their own experiences, others perished in the conflict and never saw their native island again.
See full list of articles
A young man who single-handedly attacked a party of enemy bombers on the battlefield, scattering the group, was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal a year before he was killed in action.
Jerseyman Charles Isidore Laugeard was born in 1889 and became a police constable with the St Helier paid police, serving for three years.
Hampshire Regiment Sergeant
In 1915, when he was 26, he volunteered for active service and became a sergeant in the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment, having formerly been a private in the Jersey Militia Contingent of the Royal Irish Rifles.
After he was decorated for bravery during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 an article in the London Gazette stated that his award was for conspicuous gallantry in action. The report said that after attacking and dispersing a party of enemy bombers, he and two other soldiers bombed an enemy dugout.
Twice wounded, he served until 2 October 1918, when he was killed at Ypres, a little more than five weeks before the end of the war.
He had been married to the widow of another Jersey ex-policeman, Walter Mason, who had been killed in action.
Sgt Laugeard was buried at Dunhallow ADS Cemetery, West Vlaanderen, in Belgium.
His two brothers, Walter and Harold, who served in the Somerset Light Infantry and 7th Battery Royal Field Battalion, respectively, both survived the war.
A brass plaque was placed at the town police station in Seale Street in memory of the two former police officers.
