A DAY IN 1890

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 98, 28 April 1919, Page 9

A DAY IN 1890

THE FLAG ON HELIGOLAND

BRITISH COASTGUARD'S EXPERIENCE.

' On 9th August, 1890, the British flag was hauled down on the Island of Heligoland by Henry Hedger, of the Coastguard, who was afterwards stationed for seven years in the neighbourhood of Heme Bay, Canada. He is now, and has been for the past 20 years, verger of the parish church there; and the vicar of Heme Bay (the Rev. C. E. Stokes) suggests that, if it should become necessary to hoist the Union Jack again over Heligoland, Mr. Hedger might be fittingly employed to do it.

The ex-coastguaro)sman is a strong man of between 60 and 70.

Mr. and Mrs.- Hedger remember their life on the island with pleasure. To Mrs. Hedger it is chiefly memorable for the birth of her younger son, who grew up to be one of the 01d;/Contcmptibles, and to fall in action in 1915. They said good-bye to Heligoland the day it was. formally handed over to Germany, when the pier wae already gay with flags for the visit of the Kaiser, which happened (so the books say) the following day. All tile British population—at least all that was official in it—left at the same time ; the Governor (Mr. A. C. S. Barkley),, wlio died soon after his return to England, the magistrate, the policeman,, and the coastguard. Th 6' Frisians, who formed the greater portion of the inhabitants, did not like their going, since the transfer to Germany was not welcomed. One'domestic experience immediately before the departure, 'though nobody may have been to blame for it, seems oddly consonant with later experiences of German methods. The keys of the coastguard houses had to be delivered to the new authorities, and the men and their families were obliged to await the coming of the boat to England in dismally unsheltered conditions.

A description of life in Heligoland in those days sends back one's thoughts to the Swiss Family Robinson on their island. Even then Heligoland was &o small that you1 had to be careful lest you should tumble off it. There was a town on the high cliffs, .and another at their base, which must both have been tiny 'enough because the whole population was only 'about 2000. Two hundred steps led from the lower town to the upper, town, but modern invention wafc represented by a lift. Judging from the photographs, the hotels and restaurants were fairly commodious. They had need to be in view of the thousands .of summer . visitors. Everybody knows that Heligoland in the old time was a favourite German resort; a bathing place. The bathing, was really 'done, however, at Sandy Island, which was reached by boats from the—one was going to say the mainland-, Sandy Island has its own particular "place in history. At its back lay the French fleet during the Franco-Prussian- war of '70.