Military graves
Military graves at
St Saviour's Parish Church
HMS Hindustan (right) was commanded by Commander Jean Le Gros
While he was Rector of St Saviour, the Rev Peter Dyson carried out extensive research into many of those buried in the churchyard
A two-year project at the church led to the discovery of the graves of over 100 war veterans from the Napoleonic Wars. It first ignited the attention of Mr Dyson in 2018 when he received a letter asking about just one grave.
"It came about because of a letter. Someone wrote to me saying 'I'm a Waterloo afficionado, and I think you have a guy called William Deane buried in your churchyard, and if he is there he was at the Battle of Waterloo', so I got the burial book out and we then found it, went to the area of the churchyard where it was likely, and we found him."
Mr Dyson then went to a dinner party where he was told by another person: 'I think there are several Waterloo persons in your churchyard.'
'Several' turned out to be an understatement. It is now thought to contain more soldiers than any other churchyard in the British Isles.
On making the initial discovery, the Waterloo Committee was formed to organise the tribute to the forgotten heroes they went on to discover. A plaque has been erected in the church naming the 58 soldiers who fought with Wellington in the Peninsular War (1808-1814) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815). It further details an appendix of an additional 43 soldiers who fought in the Napoleonic Wars in other theatres. But how did they end up in Jersey?
The war ended in 1815, and the army and the navy reduced in size by about 90%, with all these men on half pay, so still kept in reserve. Jersey became a place for them to go because there was a government subsidy for them to do so. Jersey was very close to France, which was the enemy during the Napoleonic Wars, so it was comforting to have them here.
Some of them went on to marry into Jersey families and became ensconced in local society. St Saviour, at the time, also happened to be the apex of religious and social life in the island, which explains why so many veterans were buried there. The Lieut-Governor had relocated to St Saviour from St Helier in 1822, and it was the base for the island's Dean.
A commemorative book, written by Sir William Mahon, an expert on Wellington's battles, and a committee of local historians, has been published alongside the project and breathes life into the names rediscovered.
Daniel Herapath
One story is that of Daniel Herapath who joined the army at the age of 12 as a drummer boy. The drummer boys march at the front of the battalion into full battle beating the drum to keep the soldiers marching in time and they were shot ten a penny. This boy survived six major battles in the peninsula and then was at Waterloo aged 17. He then came to Jersey.
Daniel Herapath is one of four or five soldiers whose graves could not be identified. Being poor, their graves did not have a memorial, which meant they are thought to have been buried in a paupers' grave, in a separate area of the churchyard."One of the sadnesses", said Mr Dyson, "is that most of these named are officers. Because the officers were wealthy their regiments kept records; those who were foot soldiers and privates, it's far harder to find them."
All the graves identified have been marked and will have an English rose planted on them, to mark each of the veterans buried.The soldiers believed to be resting in the paupers' section of the graveyard will share one between them, to ensure none of them are forgotten again."
Thomas Philip Le Hardy
Born in St Saviour, Jersey on 1 May 1803; Thomas Philip Le Hardy (1.1 1883 – 88 probably 85) Commander RN, was buried on 21 June 1848. He had been very active in helping stamp out the slave trade
He entered the Royal Navy on 1 August 1818. In January 1829 he joined Lieutenant Henry Downes as senior mate on a cruise in the tender Black Joke, mounting a single 18-pounder on a pivot and a 12-pounder carronade crewed by 34 men.
On 1 February the Black Joke captured a Spanish Slaver El Almirante. The chase lasted 11 hours and culminated in a fight lasting 80 minutes, in which the Black Joke lost three men killed and seven wounded, including Le Hardy. Spanish losses were 15 killed, including the captain, first and second mates - and 13 wounded.
Le Hardy engaged in a further two actions and at the end of the cruise he was rewarded with a commission on 2 May 1829. The 466 slaves on board were freed and later landed. On 6 March Black Joke captured the 2-gun brigantine Carolina, which carried 420 slaves, who were also freed.
Charles Philippe Juillerat de Chasseur
The French grave inscription says that Charles Philippe Juillerat de Chasseur (1.3.74/91) was a native of Neuchatel, Switzerland who fought in the cavalry sous l’emperor. Given his dates (1792-1847), this must be a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte. He could not have joined the army until late in Napoleon’s reign and probably fought in the 1814/15 campaign – which culminated in the battle of Waterloo.
If this is correct, he is buried in the small section of the churchyard that includes several English who fought at that battle as well as a French officer who fought for Louis XVII. His grave is in between those numbered 74 and 91 on the plan. He married into the Jersey Lesbirel family.
David Ross Dixon
David Ross Dixon (1.4.221) was a native of northern Britain who died while engaged in the construction of the harbour works at St Catherine’s Bay, aged 31. The wording that follows is unique in the churchyard as it includes brackets, and the verses at the end relate to the fact that the monument is a broken pillar, one of three in the churchyard.
- 'The workmen under his charge and others as token of their attachment and regret for his loss have raised this monument (emblem of an untidy end) as tribute and respect to his memory. He rose a pillar strong and fair/And promised brighter far to rise/Death struck when he was least aware/ And now in ruins low he lies.'
In the 19th century, broken pillars were said either to represent an untimely/accidental death or the end of a family line. It is an irony in that he is buried in the same churchyard as Admiral Martin White, RN, an expert on the seabed around Jersey, who repeatedly advised against building the harbour at St Catherine.
Jean Le Gros and Anne d'Auvergne
This is a box grave with a beautiful coat of arms on the top. Jean Le Gros (1.3.35) was a Commander, RN. He was famous for his actions when a fire broke out on the ship of which he was in command – HMS Hindustan.
On 12 February 1804 Le Gros sailed Hindustan for the Mediterranean to carry supplies to Horatio Nelson, who was at the time Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet. Arriving at Gibraltar in March, Hindustan sailed from there to join Nelson off Toulon.
On the morning of 2 April, while about 30 miles to the south-east of Cape St Sebastien, thick smoke was seen coming from the fore and main hatchways. Attempts were made to find the source of the fire, but no flames could be discovered. Orders were given to throw the ship's gunpowder overboard and an unsuccessful attempt was made to flood the magazine.
Captain Le Gros had the boats prepared and hoisted out in case it became necessary to abandon ship. He also had the marines parade with loaded muskets, to prevent anyone from fleeing in panic. The crew either threw overboard or dampened whatever gunpowder they could reach.
After struggling to fight the fire for about seven hours, when they were still 15 miles from shore, flames suddenly erupted from the hatchways. The crew was able to run Hindustan aground in Rosas Bay. When she beached, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the shore, she was completely aflame.
Local vessels were initially afraid to approach too close, but using the ship's own boats and an improvised raft, the ship's passengers and crew were saved shortly before the ship blew up.
Spanish launches ferried survivors from the ship's boats to the shore. The order of rescue was women and children, ship's crew, officers, and the captain. The evacuation was orderly and only three men were lost of the 259 people on board, including passengers.
On 19 April a court martial honourably acquitted Captain Le Gros, his officers, and the ship's company. The board praised Le Gros for his actions in saving so many of Hindustan's crew and passengers.
Nelson remarked that the preservation of the crew seemed little short of a miracle. The cause of the fire was much debated. It was suggested that the fire may have been caused by spontaneous combustion of hemp cordage or sails being stored when not completely dry.
Nelson later wrote of the incident, "the fire must have originated from medicine chests breaking down or from wet getting down which causes things to heat. I have never read such a journal of exertions in my whole life".
Jean Le Gros is buried with his wife Ann, who was sister of Philippe d'Auvergne.
Hostes Nicolle
Hostes Nicolle, who died 1564, was Constable of St Saviour in 1558 and appointed Bailiff by Poulet (therefore strongly Protestant – he burnt Catholic Breviaries for instance) in 1561. During his three years as Bailiff the first two witches were burnt in Jersey. There was a serious outbreak of plague, such that the Royal Court met in St Saviour’s church, out of town.
The manner of his death is famous and gruesome: He was seigneur of Longueville Manor and coveted the return of the land of a neighbour who was a butcher, the land having been let to him on too advantageous terms, in Hostes’ opinion.
Nicolle planted two sheep's carcasses on his land and accused the man of stealing. The man was arrested, tried (without any defence allowed) and hanged that day. When the rope was put around his neck he said to the Bailiff: “I summon you to appear within 40 days before the just judge of all to answer to God.”
On the 39th day Nicolle fell dead at the wayside. The story is written in the Chroniques, only 21 years after Nicolle’s death. It was believed his ghost galloped around Longueville Manor.
He was buried in St Saviour’s church on 10 June 1564. The Register states: “Hostes Nicolle, gentleman, Seigneur of Longueville, Bailiff of Jersey, was buried in the middle of the chancel of the church.”
There is an alternative reading of Hostes’ end set out by the Rev Christian Bateman, who purchased Longueville in the mid-19th Century and is now to be found in an article in the 1930 Societe Jersiaise Bulletin
“There was a third version of the story of the Bailiff's end which bore with it a greater probability than either of the others and that was this. So soon as poor Antoine was hung, the Bailiff was seized with the agonies of remorse and woke up to see the enormity of the crime he had committed.
In this terrible state of mind he shut himself up in his room and gave himself up to despair for the three weeks of respite Antoine had given him, but on their close—on the very day Antoine had named—he committed suicide. This was a very reasonable conclusion of the matter, and no doubt an accomplishment which satisfied the people.
This was a matter to be proved by an examination of the parish registers of St Saviour to see if he had received Christian burial and had been laid in consecrated ground, which would not have been the case if he had died by his own hand.
The Church kept up its laws, and for the terror of all evil doers, and especially those who might have a purpose of self-destruction, most rigorously enforced them as regarded all dying either unbaptised or by their own hand, and refused most positively to give them a place in 'God’s acre'.
The burial book states he was buried 'in the crossroads like a dog'. This settled the matter that the last tale was the right one and that the Devil did not run away with his body, whatever he may have done with his soul.” If this story is right, he was not buried in church as he had committed suicide, but the more modern translation in the first paragraph above is more likely.
Leonce Ogier
Leonce L’Hermitte Ogier is one of the Jersey 21 whose names are engraved on the Lighthouse Memorial in St Helier, and who did not return from German prisons and concentration camps.
He was born on 15 June 1881 and studied at Victoria College from 1896 to 1900, where he was the cricket captain and a keen rugby player. He then went to Jesus College, Oxford, to read law and was called to Bar at Lincoln’s Inn before returning to Jersey to practice as an Advocate. During WWI he was the Recruiting Officer for Jersey and was later awarded an OBE.
On 12 February 1943 the Ogier home was searched by German police, during which they found a map belonging to Richard marked with military fortifications, and a small camera belonging to Kenneth. Leonce and Richard were arrested, interrogated, and placed in Jersey jail.
The two men were taken to Paris for interrogation at Gestapo HQ. Richard did not stand trial because of illness. Leonce stood trial alone and was given a six month sentence in May 1943. The charge was so suspect that he was immediately pardoned by the military commander of Paris and, extraordinarily, sent back to Jersey.
On his return to Jersey on 24 May 1943, Leonce Ogier was treated by the Island as a hero, which irritated the Germans to the extent that they deported him again on 13 July 1943.
Unbeknown to all, he was suffering from terminal intestinal cancer. He was transferred to Biberach civilian internment camp, arriving on 16 July 1943, recorded in the camp register as prisoner number 16506). The physical and psychological shock of his second deportation, plus all that had happened over the last few months, was such that his health deteriorated quickly.
He died on 1 August 1943; two relatives who were interned in the nearby civilian internment camp at Wurzach were allowed to be with him when he died. He was cremated in order that his remains be transportable back to Jersey at the end of the war, and was eventually laid to rest in St Saviour’s cemetery.
Admiral Martin White
Under the heading “Important but unknown”, what follows is a shortened article from the 1973 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jeriaise.
Any investigation into maritime matters over the last 150 years or more cannot possibly ignore Martin White. His contribution to our knowledge of local waters is beyond measure, and it is almost certainly true to say that every mariner sailing about the Channel Islands has had cause, at some time or other, to be grateful for the vast amount of nautical data he acquired and then handed on. Yet few people seem to have even heard of him, let alone know anything about him.
Martin White was a sailor of extraordinary ability. He was almost certainly born in 1779 in Hayling Island, Hampshire. His marriage on 24 August 1811, to Eleanor Egan, produced one daughter, Ellen Elizabeth, born in 1817. Ellen remained a spinster and after her mother's death in 1862 devotedly cared for her father until his death on 30 June 1865.
Martin White's only interest in life was his work and he continued his endless hydrographical research right up to his retirement in 1846. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral (Retd) in 1851, to Vice-Admiral (Retd) in 1857, and finally to Admiral (Retd) on 22 November 1862.
Money mattered little to him and he left a personal estate of less than £200, even in those days a mere pittance. This seems inexplicable since there is nothing to indicate that he was an extravagant.
He first went to sea as a volunteer on 13 July 1794, at the age of either 13 or 15. He was taken prisoner when the ship on which he was midshipman took on a much stronger French force in November 1794.
In 1804, by then a Lieutenant, he participated in an expedition to the Baltic, first under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, and then Lord Nelson. In 1805 he took command of the Manly, his first important command.
He was promoted to Commander on 25 September 1806, and shortly after took command of the Weymouth. This must have been a frustrating period. He longed to indulge in his real love - hydrography. On 15 September 1808, he moved to the Vulture and to the Channel Islands Station. He was to spend the rest of his life in Jersey.
During the deployment of the Vulture for nearly three years in these Islands, every opportunity was taken, and every exertion used to obtain correct soundings around them, and also along the French Coast in the ship's boats. This must have been a hazardous undertaking since Napoleon had yet to be defeated, but even after the truce, one could not be absolutely certain of a friendly reception from the late foe along the adjacent continental coastline.
When White started his work, the end of the war was not even in sight, but it did not deter him. In February 1817 he was appointed to 'ye command of the Shamroc, Brig Sloop, for the purpose of Surveying the English and Irish Channels, and their adjacent coasts and Harbours, Bay of Biscay etc, to the edge of soundings...'
This was quite a parish, extending over something like 60,000 square miles, but he accomplished the task in about 20 years. Before this, in a short spell between the Vulture and the Shamrock, he used a small vessel of 16 tons named the Fox for his local surveys, but much of his work was carried out in an open boat.
In 1818 he received further promotion, which he learned of in a personal letter from Admiral Sir George Cockburn, who wrote: "I have much pleasure in acquainting you that you are promoted to the rank of Post Captain, but we wish you still to continue in command of the Shamrock, to pursue the surveying duties on which you already have.
Surveys in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay obviously included the French coastline and after the war, officers of the French Navy were placed under Captain White's command, 'a service as laborious and responsible, and indeed as delicate as any officer could be entrusted with'.
Martin White's opinion was often sought about the proposal to build St Catherine’s breakwater, but he might as well have saved his breath. It is now known beyond all possible doubt that St Catherine's Bay was not the right choice.
Nothing was more obvious to Captain White: Even before the fiasco was contemplated, he stated the dangers time and again, but nobody heeded him. White strongly rejected St Catherine because of the effects of deposition - that is to say, the risk of the bay silting up, which is precisely what happened when the breakwater was built.
In his researches and chartings he had made an important discovery that others chose to ignore, with disastrous consequences. During retirement he lived to see the folly constructed to be followed by its ultimate abandonment. It was a costly fiasco and inevitably it was the English taxpayer who footed the bill.
In 1830, long before St Catherine's Bay came under consideration, the Senior Naval Lord was Admiral Sir George Cockburn. On the day he was 'winding up to quit office', he found time to write a personal note to Martin White: 'I am confident there is no person more fit than yourself to give a good explanation of the nature of the tides and currents and other data connected with the charts of the Channel and Atlantic, and you have my full permission to dedicate anything of that description to me if you wish it'.
Fernando Gasco
Fernando Gasco (1.4.82), a Spanish civilian who fought against the French in the Peninsular War at the siege of Cadiz.
In 1810 all of Spain, except the Atlantic port of Cadiz, was under French control. Fernando suffered two years of French bombardment in Cadiz. As part of the Select Committee, he was charged with organising the Militia.
The French siege ended in the spring of 1812. Fernando returned to Madrid in September 1813 when the city was liberated. In 1820 he was elected Congressman of the Province of Madrid. It was during this time that that Don Francisco became one of the most active Congressmen in Parliament. He became minister of the Interior.
In 1823 a Royalist French Army entered Spain to re-establish Ferdinand VII as Absolutist king. All the Liberal Members of Parliament were under threat of arrest and imprisonment. He left Madrid and sought sanctuary in Jersey, where he died in 1826. There are at least four other Spanish emigres buried in the churchyard.
Walter Stocker
Walter Arthur Stocker and his wife Louise Jane Gaudin (1.2.27) both died in 1941 during the German Occupation of the Island. He was a Lieut-Colonel who had been Commanding Officer of the Jersey Overseas Contingent, which went to fight in the Great War.
Between the wars he worked tirelessly to support members form the Jersey Contingent who had fallen on hard times and to help the families of those who had died. With great irony he died after walking into the road and being run over by a car driven by a German. His wife had died a few months before.
Clarence and Peter Painter
Clarence and Peter Painter lived in New Zealand Avenue. Clarence Painter was born in Berkshire in 1893 and fought in the Great War. He married Dorothy Smith, the daughter of a Jersey ice cream and mineral water manufacturer.
He worked in the family business and their eldest son, Peter, was born in 1924. Peter was a pupil at Victoria College and like many youngsters he took part in acts of defiance such as taking photographs of German aircraft at the Airport, when photography was banned. He was reported to the Germans, who searched the family home. They found a Great War German pistol, brought home as a souvenir by Peter’s uncle. Guns had to be handed in when the Island was occupied. Father and son were arrested and sent to a prison in France just before Christmas. The following August, after spells in two other camps, they were transferred to Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Peter died from pneumonia, in his father’s arms, on 27 November 1944. Clarence died on 16 February 1945 in a train wagon while being transferred between camps.
William Howard Marsh
William Howard Marsh, of Langley Park, St Saviour was born on 28 November 1920 in St Helier.
A motor mechanic by trade, he worked for the Germans during the Occupation, including Organisation Todt. Rebellious by nature, in February 1944 he was reported for misconduct and put on trial. He was sentenced to 15 months for ‘insulting the German forces, disturbing the working peace and disseminating anti-German informations’.
He died in Germany on 9 March 1945. At that time he was part of a slave worker detachment building a fuel plant in Zeitz.
