Children escape besieged Boulogne on HMS Venomous
Boulogne, 22 May 1940
German forces had reached the coast near
Abbeville and were sweeping north east towards the Channel ports.
Boulogne was the last major town barring their way to Calais and
Dunkirk.The Welsh and Irish Guards were to be taken to Boulogne on
requisitioned peacetime ferries to reinforce the defence of the
harbour city. Their escorts would be HMS Keith and seven V & W destroyers. When HMS Venomous
returned to Dover from Calais at 18.00 on the 21 May Lt Cdr John
McBeath RN was told to prepare to escort the Isle of Man ferry, Mona Queen, to Boulogne the following day.
A
collection of stunning photographs taken by Lt Peter Kershaw RNVR
include pictures of upright nuns in starched white head-dresses with
young girls in smart uniforms on the deck of Venomous as it left Boulogne's harbour (see page 83 of A Hard Fought Ship). Who were these children and would they ever return to their homes again?
Troops disembarking from the Mona Queen at Boulogne on the 22 May 1940 Photographed by Lt Peter Kershaw RNVR
Venomous and Mona Queen
left Dover at 10.00 and berthed alongside the Gare Maritime on the west
side of the narrow inner harbour where the troops were photographed
disembarking with their stores. Soon the quayside was crowded with men and women hoping to escape the encircled city. The only means of escape was by sea.
Among
the refugees
were four sisters belonging to the Daughters of Charity of Saint
Vincent de Paul, easily recognisable by their large distinctive
starched cornettes (head-dresses). They had with them thirty two
girls, some as young as five, from the Daughters of Charity's orphanage
on the Boulevard Daunou and two young women teachers. The
children had no idea they were to leave France when they got up that
morning. They were suddenly told that they were to leave immediately
for the harbour. One of the
nuns, Sister (Lilly Sophie) Ross, was born in London in 1870 but had been at the orphanage since 1913. Lt
Cdr McBeath RN agreed to take them aboard along with many other refugees on the quayside. The Sisters hoped to escape with the children to their
House at Valognes on the Cherbourg peninsula in Normandy - but Venomous was heading straight back to Dover.
Two photographs of HMS Venomous leaving Boulogne with the sisters and orphan children aboard The swing bridge, the Pont Marguet, is visible in the distance and in the photograph on the right a crane on the Quai Chanzy can be seen
Courtesy of Sheena Mackenzie (left) and Erica Pountney (right)
As Venomous drew away
from the quay alongside the Gare Maritime Lt Peter Kershaw RNVR
photographed the refugees crowding the deck (left) with the hotels and
commerical buildings lining the waterfront on the far side of the
harbour visible in the background. The head-dress of two of the Sisters and some of the children can be seen among the other evacuees on deck.
After
Boulogne had fallen and France had surrendered to the occupying forces,
Sister Leplat, Sister Superior of the Boulogne Community wrote to the
Superior General at the Mother House in Paris:
"I
asked Our Mother Chaplain to give permission to evacuate our children
to Valognes (Manche) in case of danger but the German advance has been
so rapid that it was impossible to flee except by boat. They embarked
on Wednesday 22 May and after an anxious time we have learnt they
have arrived safely in England: we do not know where they are or if
they were able to get to Normandy. They were acconpanied by Sister
Ross, an English Sister, Sister Dumont, Sister Andres and Sister
Roudolet. If you have any news, my most honoured mother we would be
very happy to have it for we have been suffering in ignorance for a
long time because we do not know their whereabouts."
The story of the voyage of the Daughters of Charity and the orphans to England and what happened to them after
their arrival at Dover was uncovered by e-mailing these photographs to
a journalist at La Voix du Nord.
His story in the paper's Boulogne edition on the 16 June 2011 was read
by two of the orphan children, Jacqueline Vicart, who was only five at
the time and Marie-Paule Sergent who was twelve.
These two photographs were taken by Lt Peter Kershaw on the 22 May 1940
The first is on page 83 of A Hard Fought Ship but the second was only discovered recently amongst the private papers of Lt Cdr Angus A. Mackenzie RNR.
Mackenzie was "No 1" to Lt Cdr John McBeath RN
The children are wearing the attractive uniform of the orphanage including distinctive
flat topped hats and cloaks with hoods attached. The Sisters and their young charges were the first to be taken aboard HMS Venomous,
the last ship to leave. A young man brought his heavily pregnant wife
aboard but then decided to remain behind. The ship was so crowded thst
they had to remain on deck and twelve year old Marie Paul Sergeant
described how as they left the harbour they were fired at by two German
planes. They were told to lie down and the English sailors fired back
and drove off the attacking German aircraft. On arrival at Dover they
spent two days in a reception centre where everybody including the
well-dressed young children were disinfected. The young
pregnant woman gave birth to a boy the day after they reached Dover.
Sister
Marie-Marthe, Sister Marie, Sister Jeanne and the young girls went to
London where they spent eight months in a beautiful large house. During
air raids they gathered round a grand piano and as one of the
Sisters played they sang aloud to drown the noise of the attacking
planes and keep their spirits up.
When
London became too dangerous the children and the four sisters and two
young teachers, Renée Mottot and Thérèse Toulotte, were sent to
Smyllum Park Orphanage at the small town of Lanark in central Scotland
midway between
Glasgow and Edinburgh. The orphanage looked like a castle and had its
own farm, a school and was set in many acres of land. It was run by the
Daughters of
Charity in Britain but the young French children remained in the care
of the French Sisters. They were told that the big house had been the
castle of William Wallace but the truth was less romantic. It had been
built about 1760 for Dr William Smellie (1697-1763), a renowned
gynaecologist.
The house and grounds of Smyllum Park Orphanage Courtesy of the Daughters of Charity of Saint
Vincent de Paul
Lanark like most country
towns received large numbers of evacuess from nearby cities which
suffered from heavy bombing; in April 1941 alone 2,850 children arrived
from Glasgow.
There were also large number of servicemen stationed at bases nearby as
recorded in this private diary entry for 1940: "During the end of June
and early in July thousands of Polish and French soldiers arrived and
went into camps at Biggar, Coulter, Douglas, Symington, Abington and
Crawford. Crowds of soldiers visited Lanark at night and later many
Polish Officers and wives stayed in the town." The town must have been
a lively place.
The children were well looked after and happy at Smyllum and were able
to keep in touch with their families in France via the Red Cross.
Although Jacqueline Vicart was very young she was able to remember all
their
names from the positions where they slept in the dormitory:
They soon grew out
of the clothes they were wearing when they left
Boulogne and were wearing a rather drab looking outfit when they were
photographed at Smyllum in 1942. They were taught together as a group
but Marie Paul Sergent went to the orphanage school when she got older
and learned to speak English. Young American soldiers from a nearby
American base were very friendly to the children and a childless
Scottish couple who lived
nearby welcomed them into their home. They were
also invited by charitable organisation to visit Edinburgh, Glasgow and
even
London where they met General de Gaulle.
Christmas Party for children of the "United Nations" at Oakfield House, 18 Great George Street, Glasgow on the 19 December 1942 The name "United Nations",
coined by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was first used in the
"Declaration by United Nations" of 1 January 1942,
when representatives of 26 nations pledged their governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers.
When the war ended they put on a
patriotic tableaux featuring Marie-Paule Sergent as the Virgin
Mary with one child in sailor uniform holding the flag of
the Cross of
Lorraine and Jacqueline carrying the American flag - with the Union
Jack and the Scottish flag held by boys in army uniforms.
Sadly, Louise Langlois died in St Mary's
Hospital on the 25 January 1945 from acute broncho-pneumonia (she had a
weak heart). Louise, the orpan child of Louis F.J. Langlois, a
journalist, was 21 and employed as a domestic servant at Smyllum. Her
death was reported by a friend, Genevieve Mendolet. Sister
Ross
who was born in London and was now 75 remained at Smyllum where
she died in 1952. One of the French sisters also remained at Smyllum.
The remainder of the orphan children, the two other sisters and the
two teachers returned to Boulogne via Dieppe and
Paris in 1945.
In 1956 the friendly Scottish couple who had been so kind to them died
and left their estate to the orphan children, each of whom received the equivalent of two
thousand Euros. The orphanage closed in 1974, the facade of the
"castle" remains but the interior was gutted and converted into luxury
flats and a housing estate built on the grounds.
Return to Lanark after Sixty Six Years
Tuesday 6 September 2011
Marie Paul Sergent had been talking for years about revisiting Lanark and when the article in La Voix du Nord led to her meeting Jacqueline Vicart they decided to go together. As 83 year old Marie Paul Sergent said, "it's never too late to do a good thing." They flew to Edinburgh on Sunday 4 September 2011 to revisit the town where they spent five happy years far removed from the war in
Europe.
They were met at on a wet and dreary Tuesday at Lanark station by Edith
Ryan, a French speaking member of Lanark's twinning association, and a
reporter and photographer from the Lanark Gazette. Father Brannigan, the priest at St Mary's, the Catholic church, took them to meet the
retired nuns still living in the town who "treated them like
princesses" and to see the former Smyllum Orphanage now converted into
luxury apartments.
Marie Paul Sergeant (left)
and Jacqueline Vicart (right) with Anne, the niece of the caretaker at
Smyllum, on the steps at Smyllum
Father Brannigan also arranged a meeting with Anne McAllister (neé Mulligan), the niece of the
caretaker at the orphanage during the war. She and Marie Paul had
played together daily when Marie Paul returned from school. Marie Marie
Paul and
Anne fell into each others arms.
Left: In front of
Edinburgh Station Right: Marie Paul Sergeant (left) with
Anne by the gate into the field where the children played.
Jacqueline recognised a gate into a
field which she used to run across as a child and they visited the
communal grave where one of their friends, Louise Langlois, who died a few months before they returned to France, was buried. Their return to Lanark was
a very emotional experience for both and was reported on the front page
of the Lanark Gazette and in the Boulogne edition of La Voix du Nord.
Acknowledgements
This account of the adventures of the children photographed by Lt Peter Kershaw RNVR on the deck of HMS Venomous
on the 22 May 1940 is entirely based on the memories of five year old
Jacqueline Vicart, twelve year old Marie-Paule Sergent, sixteen year
old Gisèle Brebion and Huguette Leroy.
I would like to acknowledge the
assistance of Sister Joan Conroy, Archivist at the Daughters of
Charities House at Mill Hill in north London, who obtained a copy of
the letter written by the Sister Superior at the Boulogne Community to
the Superior General at the Mother House in Paris and also provided the
photographs of the Smyllum orphanage.
Paul Archibald of the Lanark Local Studies Library provided background information about conditions in Lanark during the war.
I am particularly indebted to Frédéric Vaillant, the reporter at La Voix du Nord whose
articles on the 16 and 19 June 2011 were read by the "children". And,
of course, to the children themselves, most of whom are now
grandmothers.
The following day HMS Venomous returned to Boulogne with six sister ships and fought off German tanks and planes to bring back the troops
Read the story of Lt Cdr Colin G.W. Donald RN who was killed by a sniper while commanding HMS Vimy at Boulogne on the 23 May 1940
