LAST INVASION OF BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15884, 3 April 1915, Page 5 (Supplement)

LAST INVASION OF BRITAIN.

JrsT as the battle of Slays on June 24, 1340, was the first great naval victory of England over the French, or any other nation, since the Conquest, so it was the French who actually occupied Fishguard, in Wales, now the port of call for certain Atlantic liners, for three days in February, 1797—the last time a hostile force held land in Britain. By another curious coincidence, the socalled weaker sex was present on both occasions. Prior to the battle of Sluys, Edward 111. had blundered through a most disastrous campaign in north-eastern France—the battleground of to-day—and had incurred debts to his "miserable, useless allies/' mostly Germans, to the amount of £300,000 a great sum in those days. He had seized, and sold, and pawned everything of value that he could lay his hands on, but even then they would not allow him to pass over to Engi land to raise fresh resources; bo, (or that purpose, he had to leave his queen in pawn. When, therefore. King Edward, on his return to the Continent, set sail with his fleet for Flanders, he was accompanied in other vessels by many English ladies who were going to pay their respects to the pledged queen, and so witnessed the first brilliant proof of that maritime ascendancy which awaited this country. So at Fishguard, in 1797, on the landing of the French, the Welsh fishwives played a, great part, and startled the foreigners into the belief that a large force of English soldiers was marching on them, little dreaming that they were being duped merely by a procession round a hill of brave Cymric women clad in the national scarlet capes. This is recorded by a tombstone in the parish churchyard to the memory of "Jemima Nicholas, the Welsh heroine, who boldly marched to meet the French invaders. She died in Main Street. July, 1832, aged 82 years." Nor should there bo forgotten that lino old Nonconformist parson who was preaching in his chapel at Haverfordwest when the news spread through his congregation that the French had landed nt Fishguard. Exhorti'ig his flock to courage, the pastor, with a selection of militant texts from the Old Testament, ailed upon bis male hearers to arm themselves and follow him. Parson Jones, shouldering his own doublebarrelled fowling-piece, marched at the head of his entire male congregation, variously armed with scythes, haly-forkfi, axes, and reaping hooks, over to Fishguard, and placed his contingent at the service of Lord Cawdor. The latter had already assembled about 300 of the Cardigan and Pembrokeshire Militia, who, for this share in capturing the invaders, were thereafter given permission to bear the. word "Fishguard" on their caps, in memory of the historic occasion.