The Last Invasion of Britain in Fishguard, 1797

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Here's an interesting snippet

 

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More here

The French invasion force comprising some 1400 troops set sail from Camaret on February 18th, 1797. The man entrusted by the Directory to implement their ‘cunning plan’ was an Irish-American septuagenarian, Colonel William Tate. As Napoleon had apparently reserved the cream of the Republican army for duties elsewhere in Europe, Colonel Tate’s force comprised a ragtag collection of soldiers including many newly released jailbirds. Tate’s orders were to land near Bristol, England’s second largest city and destroy it, then to cross over into Wales and march north onto Chester and Liverpool. From the outset however all did not proceed as detailed in the ‘cunning plan’. Wind conditions made it impossible for the four French warships to land anywhere near Bristol, so Tate moved to ‘cunning plan’ B, and set a course for Cardigan Bay in southwest Wales.

On Wednesday February 22nd, the French warships sailed into Fishguard Bay to be greeted by canon fire from the local fort. Unbeknown to the French, the cannon was being fired as an alarm to the local townsfolk. Nervously the ships withdrew and sailed on until they reached a small sandy beach near the village of Llanwnda. Men, arms and gunpowder were unloaded and by 2 am on the morning of Thursday February 23rd, the last invasion of Britain was completed. The ships returned to France with a special despatch being sent to the Directory in Paris informing them of the successful landing.

Upon landing, the French invasion force appear to have run out of enthusiasm for the ‘cunning plan’. Perhaps as a result of years of prison rations, they seem to have been more interested in the rich food and wine the locals had recently removed from a grounded Portuguese ship. After a looting spree, many of the invaders were too drunk to fight and within two days, the invasion had collapsed: Tate’s force surrendered to a local militia force led by Lord Cawdor on February 25th 1797.

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofWales/The-Last-Invasion-of-Britain/

 

[JuanTwoThree]

The pictures are mostly from The Last Invasion Tapestry which is upstairs from the market hall in Fishguard. It's well worth a visit on a rainy day in Fishguard (so no shortage of those!).

The legend is that the French mistook the Welsh women for redcoats. An early example of boat happy!

For some odd reason, despite downsizing in her old age, my mother has hung onto a book which is a novelised account of the French Invasion. Nobody in my family has ever read more than a few pages; my father threw it across the room. See how far you get:

The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797, by M. E. James

Stuff like "The crowd on the cliffs followed in the direction of the ships, keeping them ever in sight. Helter-skelter we ran along, crossing deep gullies, then along bare headlands covered only with gorse and large grey stones, then passing under a great mass of rock, like to some gaunt castle or fort (but alas, lacking cannon), then, at rare intervals, where a stream ran into the sea, we would dip suddenly into a smiling little valley."

I defy anyone to finish it.

 

[nogojones]

The pictures are mostly from The Last Invasion Tapestry which is upstairs from the market hall in Fishguard. It's well worth a visit on a rainy day in Fishguard (so no shortage of those!).

The legend is that the French mistook the Welsh women for redcoats. An early example of boat happy!

For some odd reason, despite downsizing in her old age, my mother has hung onto a book which is a novelised account of the French Invasion. Nobody in my family has ever read more than a few pages; my father threw it across the room. See how far you get:

The Fishguard Invasion by the French in 1797, by M. E. James

Stuff like "The crowd on the cliffs followed in the direction of the ships, keeping them ever in sight. Helter-skelter we ran along, crossing deep gullies, then along bare headlands covered only with gorse and large grey stones, then passing under a great mass of rock, like to some gaunt castle or fort (but alas, lacking cannon), then, at rare intervals, where a stream ran into the sea, we would dip suddenly into a smiling little valley."

I defy anyone to finish it.

I remember this book covering it pretty well...https://www.amazon.co.uk/Partners-Revolution-United-Irishmen-France/dp/0300043023

William Tate was well pissed off. He thought he was getting leet fighing force to take the struggle to the mainland and he ended up with a bunch of wreckheads and petty crims that France wanted shot of