Ascension set recalls Napoleon’s exile

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33442, 25 January 1974, Page 14

Ascension set recalls Napoleon’s exile

(By KENNETH ANTHONY)

Just before Napoleon Bonaparte went into exile on St. Helena in 1815, he inspected a guard of Royal Marines drawn up on board H.M.S. Bellerophon. “How much might I have accomplished with a hundred thousand soldiers such as these,” he said. Even in captivity on a remote South Atlantic island Napoleon was regarded with much apprehension by the great powers of Europe. Once before he had gone into exile — only to return and lead the French to defeat at Waterloo. This time no chances were taken. Some 700 miles north-west of St Helena lay the barren volcanic island of Ascension. It was such an uninviting place that it had remained uninhabited since the Portugese discovered it in 1501. But as a precaution a naval detachment was sent to occupy the island. Included in this detachment was a force of the Royal Marines, the seagoing British soldiers who had so impressed Napoleon.

The former emperor died in 1821 — but in Ascension the marines stayed on to garrison the island for just over a century. All this time the island was under the control of the British Admiralty — and from this curious arrangement came the practice of regarding the island as a ship, known as

H.M.S. Ascension. For many years the ordinary British stamps were used there, just as they were on board other ships of the British fleet. Not until 1922 was Ascension transferred to the control of the British colonial office — the first Ascension stamps appeared in the same

year — and in 1923 the garrison of marines was finally withdrawn.

Nowadays lonely Ascension is important as a communications centre, with its wireless, cable and satellite tracking stations. But something of its unusual history is recalled by an interesting new set of stamps marking the 50th anniversary of the departure of the marines. The stamps show in full colour the uniforms worn by Royal Marine officers and men at various periods during the corps’ long spell of garrison duty in Ascension. The example illustrated depicts a private soldier of Napoleonic times.