Broadlands, Grouville - Part 2

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Broadlands, Grouville

Part 2


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This is an abridged version [1] of the article by Trevor Labey which was first published in the 2010 Annual Bulletin of La Société Jersiaise. It was a follow-up to the article published in the previous year’s bulletin


The first part of this history established that the house known as Broadlands, near La Hougue Bie, Grouville, was built in 1851 by Philippe du Heaume of Bagot, St Saviour, for the benefit of his only son and namesake.

This second Philippe du Heaume, a former Lt-Colonel in the Royal Jersey Artillery and a Jurat of the Royal Court, was forced to sell Broadlands in the wake of the collapse of the Jersey Banking Company in 1886, a bank which acted as bankers to the States of Jersey and of which he was both president and shareholder.

Accused of complicity in the embezzlements that occurred during the bank’s collapse, Jurat du Heaume was not only compelled to resign from the Bench of the Royal Court, but was prosecuted as part of the judicial investigation of the bank’s failure. As the bank was an unlimited liability company, he was also obliged to liquidate his entire estate in an attempt to satisfy the claims of the bank’s customers and other creditors.

Part 2 will examine the history of those who inhabited the house between the departure of the du Heaume family in 1887, and its sale by Lady Byrne in August 1929. As has been stressed in Part 1, this examination will reveal that, if anything, Broadlands — though its structure and aesthetic appeal were considerably enhanced — continued to be something of a troubled house for all those who lived in it.

du Heaume

The 65-year-old Philippe du Heaume had already issued a grant of attorney in favour of his eldest surviving son - Herbert Thomas Du Heaume - within two months of his acquittal in September 1886, effectively delegating responsibility for satisfying the demands placed on him by the liquidators of the Jersey Banking Company to a younger, less exhausted generation.

The actual process of selling Broadlands would have fallen to the 23-year-old Herbert and, it would seem, his brother-in-law, the solicitor Philip John Falle of 14 Hill Street. This process did not begin in earnest until March 1887, a delay which may have been due as much to the commonsense demands of logistics as any other factor. In the circumstances, it would have been only sensible to establish the family in its new home in Almorah Road first, before undergoing the very uncertain process of Broadlands’ sale.

The exemption of his wife’s assets from the demands of the bank’s creditors would have made this approach only too viable.

So it was that, on 1 March 1887, an advertisement appeared in the ‘’British Press and Jersey Times’’ drawing islanders’ attention to the imminent sale of Broadlands, Grouville, by an auction on the premises. Nestling discreetly under the heading ‘To be sold’, the advertisement promised buyers a house that had been: ‘newly constructed in a superior manner, with the avenues, ornamental grounds, spacious outbuildings, and walled garden, also the land joining thereto, the whole containing 39 vergees, and situated near Prince’s Tower. ’ All interested parties were asked to approach Mr Ph J Falle, 14 Hill Street, for further details. Unfortunately this notice found itself languishing in the shadows of a much greater advertisement that loomed above it at the top of the page. Ironically, this larger notice had been placed by the liquidators of the estate of Philippe Gosset, the Jersey Banking Company’s convicted ex-manager and former States Treasurer. Consequently, this first approach failed to have the desired effect, and the du Heaume camp was forced to make allowance for the competition. Redoubling their efforts, they increased the size of the print and added that the house and outbuildings had been: ‘built quite recently at a cost exceeding £4,000

Whether or not the auction went ahead is not clear, but find a buyer they did, and the appropriate contract was passed before the Royal Court on 22 April 1887.

Before passing on to the story of the house’s second inhabitants, a further point of interest found in the 1887 deed of sale needs to be noted, namely, the inclusion of a greenhouse in the house’s facilities. Although the ‘ornamental grounds’ mentioned in Philip Falle’s advertisements implies that Broadlands already: enjoyed some form of garden, the contract of 1887 also proves that it was the du Heaumes who had first struck on the idea of having a little greenhouse in which to nurture their plants.

Le Gallais family

Mark Henry

The new owner, Mark Henry Frederick Le Gallais, was a bachelor of only 24 years of age who, despite being a member of a local family and very close to Herbert Thomas du Heaume in terms of age, had never quite crossed paths with his du Heaume contemporary before that time.

His interest in the house may have been due more to the appearance of Philip Falle’s advertisements than any other connection. Mark Le Gallais’s origins were slightly more exotic than immediate appearances implied. A member of the Le Gallais family of La Moye, St Brelade, Mark was the grandson of Philippe Le Gallais, solicitor, Deputy Viscount from 1823 and Jurat of the Royal Court from January 1843 until his death in August 1868. As the grandson of Marie Marguerite Amy, Mark was also a descendant of the Amy family of Le Patier, St Saviour, itself an offshoot of the Amy families of Le Boulivot and Le Catillon de Haut, Grouville. He did, therefore, have some distant connection with the parish in which he was now settling.

Mark’s father, Edmund Le Gallais, was his parents’ third son and was born in St Helier in September 1824. Despite his family’s more usual association with the parish of St Brelade, his father’s pursuit of a career in the legal profession prompted them to take up residence in the island’s principal town, where Edmund seems to have spent much of his childhood. Eventually, Edmund became involved in civil engineering and, by around 1856, had entered the employment of an English engineering compan, Waring Brothers. It was then that Edmund is believed to have been posted to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to assist with the construction of railway viaducts.

In so doing, he must have come into direct contact with members of the Metz family, who were not only taking a pivotal role in the development of the Grand Duchy’s iron industry but also, because of this interest, had a very cogent reason to encourage the improvement of the Grand Duchy’s infrastructure. Norbert Metz, then the most prominent member of the clan, is known to have attended a banquet held to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone for one of the Grandy Duchy’s railway viaducts in 1859.

The development of the Metz family’s commercial interests date back to the end of the 18th century, when Jean Metz and Anne-Marie-Justine Gérard his wife moved away from the Grand Duchy’s countryside and into the city of Luxembourg. [2]

Like so many members of this family, the life of Jean Metz was to be cut short in February 1815 when he was only 51 years of age. His eldest son and second child, Charles-Gérard-Emmanuel Metz, born in January 1799, died on 24 April 1853 aged 54. Three of his children survived to adulthood: the Luxembourg journalist and politician, Frederic-Jules Metz; his daughter, Henriette Irma Metz, wife of Constantin-Joseph-Antoine Schaefer; and his youngest daughter, Leonie Petronille Metz, later wife of Edmund Le Gallais and mother of Mark Henry Frederick Le Gallais, of Broadlands.

Charles Norbert

By the very manner in which he was named, Charles Norbert Auguste Jules Le Gallais, the eldest son and first child of Edmund Le Gallais and Leonie-Petronille Metz, was clearly marked for a major role in the Metz businesses, taking his name from his maternal grandfather, great-uncles and uncle. Born while the family were renting accommodation at the Boch family’s chateau at Septfontaines in April 1860, Edmund’s first son would soon have his name truncated to iust Norbert in honour of his great-uncle, who must have been quite a major influence during the first 25 years of his life.

Although educated at Victoria College, Norbert soon fell into the more familiar Metz pattern by being trained in law before becoming secretary-general of the Metz forgeries at Eich in 1890. Five years later, he succeeded his mother’s cousin, Edouard Metz as a director of Metz et Cie. On becoming the company’s chief executive in 1904, he changed the company’s name to Le Gallais, Metz et Cie., a firm which was now specialising in the production of steel for tools and building materials. In 1911 the decision was taken to merge Le Gallais, Metz et Cie. with his great-uncle Norbert’s creation, La Société Anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux et Forges de Dudelange, as well as la Société Anonyme des Mines du Luxembourg et Forges de Sarrebruck, to form a new enterprise by the name of Aciéries Reunies Burbach-Esch-Dudelange, or ARBED.

Besides his business interests, Norbert Le Gallais followed his grandfather as a Member of the Grand Duchy’s Legislative Assembly, pursuing pastimes that were very similar to those followed by his brothers: racing, hunting and motoring. He died in 1934. His son, Hugues Le Gallais, served as the Grand Duchy’s Ambassador in Washington DC during the course of the Second World War.

Edmund Le Gallais’s second son, Philip Walter Jules Le Gallais, was also destined to earn significant distinctions of his own as an officer in the British cavalry. Born in August 1861, and educated at Victoria College, Philip received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Southern Regiment of the Royal Jersey Militia in November 1878. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant in that regiment in March 1881, he took up a commission as a second lieutenant in the 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars the following month, remaining with that regiment for the duration of his career.

Promoted lieutenant in July that year, Philip was subsequently promoted captain in March 1888. 21 Appointed Aide de Camp to Lieut-General Sir George Greaves, Commander of the Bombay Army in India, in April 1891, he became adjutant of his regiment in August 1893. Posted to Egypt in November 1896, he rose further to the rank of major in April 1897, and in the spring of 1898 served in the Sudan and as a member of the Nile Expedition under the ultimate command of the then Sirdar - or Commander-in-Chief - Major-General Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener. Awarded the Order of Osmanieh (Fourth Class) by the Khedive of Egypt the following July, 24 he was also mentioned in despatches at both the Battle of Omdurman and Battle of Khartoum that autumn, receiving a further promotion to the rank of brevet lieut-colonel in November in recognition of his services.

He was to remain in Egypt for over a year before his posting to South Africa in January 1900. It was there that he was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to Lieutenant General Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, accompanying Hamilton in his flank march to Pretoria and Heidelberg. Subsequently given command of detached mounted infantry, it was in November 1900, when aged 38, that he was killed at Bothaville.

Mark Henry Frederick Le Gallais was his father’s third son and child, born at Eich in Luxembourg on 30 September 1862. Although the reason for the choice of his first two forenames remains obscure, the last was undoubtedly intended as a means of honouring his maternal uncle, the Luxembourg journalist, Frederic-Jules Metz. He followed his brothers to Victoria College in 1872. His father Edmund died when Mark was only ten years of age, and while nothing is known about the impact or this sudden loss, it is known that his education was somewhat fractured. After his spell at Victoria College, he attended Thomson’s Academy, after which he went abroad to complete his studies.

Although not present in the island at the time of the Census in April 1881, he must have returned to Jersey not long afterwards, following his brother Philip into the rank of lieutenant in the Southern Regiment of the Royal Jersey Militia in either June or July that year. 3He was then promoted to the rank of captain in May 1887 before transferring, in March 1890, to the Royal jersey Artillery.

Purchase of Broadlands

After his purchase of Broadlands in April 1887, he seems to have followed Philippe du Heaume in using the property as a working farm, describing himself as a farmer at the time of the 1891 Census. At that time he had only just married, his bride being his uncle’s niece, Josephine Nicole (‘Finky’) de Schaefer. The sixth of Ferdinand de Schaefer’s seven children by his second marriage to Clementine de Nothomb, Josephine was thus the niece of Constantin Joseph Antoine Schaefer and Henriette Irma Metz, the sister of her future mother-in-law, Leonie. <ref.The next section of the article giving a history of the de Schaefer family has been omitted</ref>

Besides Mark Le Gallais’s marriage, the year 1891 would also witness a slight expansion of the house’s estate to include La Hougue Bie. Like Broadlands before it, La Hougue Bie’s owner — Arthur James Henry Rohrs — saw fit to put it up for auction and publicly advertise the fact on a number of occasions. The first bids were due to be taken on the premises on 19 May that year.

Advertised under the heading ‘Prince’s Tower ’ its promoters described it as a: ‘well-known property, with about six vergees of ‘Pleasure Grounds and Hotel, which is visited by all tourists coming to the Island on account of its historical interest, and commanding a view of the surrounding Country and the Coast of France’.

The appropriate contract was passed on 20 June, and though reference was made to the rights of the existing tenant within it, it proved necessary to advertise the lease within a few months of Mark’s purchase of the property. A further advertisement asking for bids for the lease appeared the following August. It is no longer possible to be sure why Mark decided to buy the property. He may have been motivated by nothing more than a desire to control a tourist attraction immediately next to the house in which he now wished to raise his family. Either way, the family continued to make their investment earn its keep by leasing it out to commercial tenants for the duration of their ownership.

As the 1890s progressed, Mark’s life became gradually busier. In December 1892 he joined Lieut-Colonel Philip Robin as ‘’aide de camp’’ to the then Lieutenant-Governor, Major-General Edwin Markham. In April 1896 he was promoted to the rank of major in the Royal Jersey Artillery, relinquishing his duties as ‘’aide de camp’’ when, in October that year, he became Deputy Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of the Royal Jersey Militia in place of Lieut-Colonel Charles Le Cornu. He retained this post for five years, and in light of the responsibilities it entailed, chose to declare these duties as his principle occupation at the time of the 1901 Census.

This return also reveals that further responsibilities had been placed on his shoulders closer to home, for he was now father to three children aged eight, seven and three. The growth of his family and the couple’s expectation of further additions, combined, perhaps, with a more general desire to bring the house up to the standards that Josephine would have known in Vienna and Luxembourg, may have been the impetus behind the construction of the new southern extension. This added further attic rooms, two bedrooms, a dining room and annex together with a new, more spacious kitchen and servants’ hall.

A further and very robust staircase was added at the back of this extension which ran from the servants’ hall in the basement all the way up into the attic space, thus enabling the household staff to wend their way round the house without disturbing members of the family or guests. Both the style of this new service staircase, and the proliferation of domestic staff at Broadlands in 1901, tend to imply that it was Mark Le Gallais, rather than any of his successors, who was responsible for this addition to the house. In 1891 the newly-weds had been assisted by no more than an English butler, a Luxembourg cook, and a locally born coachman-come-groom. By 1901 the number of servants had doubled. At both times the coachman/groom would have been accommodated in the outbuildings to the east of the main house, but it seems very unlikely that Mark’s family would have been able to live comfortably with such a dramatically increased household in the limited space that the du Heaumes had left behind.

In 1901 the household included a French male cook, a parlourmaid, two housemaids — one born in France and the other in Germany — an English nurse for the children, as well as the local coachman living in the outbuildings.

Social activity

In light of Mark’s varied interests, it is likely that Broadlands would have been quite a hive of social activity. Over and above his involvement in farming and the most senior ranks of the local Militia, Mark was well-known for his interest in a number of sports. An official at local race meetings, he obviously shared both his brothers’ interest in horses, being noted for his ownership of Princess May, a horse that won the Queen’s Cup for four years in succession from 1894-97 and in 1899. He was also a member of the Channel Islands’ Racing and Hunt Club, an exhibitor at local dog shows and a member of the Victoria Club.

After five year’ service, Mark stepped down as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in 1901, being promoted to the rank of Lieut-Colonel in the Royal Jersey Artillery in February 1903. In 1905 he became a father for the fourth and final time when his wife delivered their youngest child, Simone.

Whether the pace of his life had any effect on his health is not known, but in late July 1906, while preparing for a holiday on the Continent, Mark became unwell. ‘His symptoms were such that it was deemed necessary to summon his medical adviser, ’ the ‘’Evening Post’’ reported. It became apparent that the nature of the disease which he was suffering was serious. The medics ascertained that he was suffering from haemorrhage of the lungs. After being in a somewhat critical state for some time he rallied, but the improvement was of brief duration, for a relapse set in. Despite the attention of three doctors, he died on Wednesday 29 August 1906 at the age of 43.

The ‘’Evening Post’’ announced his death that night with ‘feelings of unmingled regret ’, paying homage not only to his achievements in the local Militia, but also noting that he had been: ‘deservedly popular with all classes ’. The Victoria Club, it added, was flying its flag at half mast in his honour. The funeral, was held at the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St Peter in Vauxhall, St Helier, The Rev Father Hourigan, preceded by a cross bearer and acolytes, meeting the procession at the entrance to the Church. Mark Le Gallais was buried in the Anglican cemetery in St Saviour, the Lieut-Governor attending the interment.

The eldest son, Philip Edmund Mark Le Gallais, was only 13 at the time of his father’s death, so his ineritance of his father’s realty would remain in abeyance until he reached the age of majority. [3] In the meantime Britain declared war on Germany Within ten days of hostilities commencing, young Philip Le Gallais had joined up as a second lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment. As he would have reached the age of majority in September 1913, his recruitment must have occurred while the family’s lawyers were grinding through the ponderous process of the inevitable partage.

It was undoubtedly because of his involvement in the armed forces, and the dangers it entailed, that Philip decided to sell Broadlands to his mother Josephine. The partage relating to the settlement of his father’s realty was passed on 23 October 1914, and the ownership of the house transferred to his mother eight days later. By that time, her second son, Reginald Walter (Reggie) had completed his studies at Victoria College.

Now that Britain was engaged in its straggle against Germany and its allies, some involvement in the armed forces must have seemed very likely for him, but it was some time before he had either the inclination or opportunity to commit himself, and when he did, he chose to serve in the new Royal Flying Corps.

At the end of October 1915 he was instructed to report to the Corps’s premises in Albermarle Street, Westminster, to receive some Initial instruction in aviation. On 6 November 1915 he received his commission as a second lieutenant and was posted, to Castle Bromwich in the Midlands to complete his training as a flying officer. He received his wings on 21 March 1916, leaving for France the following June to undertake patrol duties on both the front and in coastal areas there while still only 18. He was still not the most physically robust of teenagers, and was hospitalised on a couple of occasions during this particular spell of service.

Sopwith Scout flight

The second, at Amiens in April 1917, spelt the end of his engagements in France, and he was posted back to England within a matter of days. By the early autumn of 1917, after returning to Jersey to visit his mother while on leave, Reggie was serving in the Corp’s No 112 HD Squadron in Kent. On Saturday 15 September, while at Throwley near Faversham, hw climbed into a 100hp Sopwith Scout biplane and, at around 2.45 in the afternoon, took off and climbed to 1,000 feet. He was seen taking some practice shots, but did not undertake any manoeuvres that might have placed an unnecessary strain on the craft’s structural integrity.

After flying without incident for some 20 minutes, he nose-dived to the ground and was killed instantly. His body was taken to the mortuary at the Cottage Hospital in Faversham, and an inquest held at the Guildhall in that town the following Monday. Major Gerald Allen, the commanding officer of his squadron, and Walter Edgar Lilley, a second air mechanic rigger, were among the witnesses. Major Allen testified to how, as the plane turned in its final descent, he noticed that: “the left hand wings had fallen off, and his theory was that probably the inter-plane strut broke, thus causing the wings to collapse, and the machine to fall. ‘It was not a brand new machine, ‘ he added ‘but it was not an old one. It had flown in all 64 hours -- 38 of which were since it was last overhauled. It had been up previously on Saturday for 54 minutes. ‘ Walter Lilley added that he had examined the craft before it took off and everything appeared to be in order. He was at a loss to explain the cause of the accident. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

Like his father, Reggie seems to have been a very personable individual who clearly made friends with ease. When the news broke in Jersey the ‘’Evening Post's’’ headline spoke of the death of a:‘Popular Young Jersey Airman’. His body arrived back in Jersey on the morning of Wednesday 19 September, carried back by the mailboat with his brother Philip, who seems to have placed Reggie’s belt on the top of the coffin as further tribute to his 19-year-old brother. As the boat docked at St Helier Harbour people on the pier bared their heads ‘as the victim of the sad tragedy was removed from the steamer. ’

The funeral drew in the crowds. ‘The whole community sympathises with the family of the late Lieut Reginald Walter Le Gallais, ’ the ‘’Evening Post’’ remarked, ‘so that it is not surprising that all classes of society gathered this morning to pay their last respects to a gallant officer, who, though young in years, had seen considerable active service in France as an airman. ’

As had been the case for his father eleven years before, a requiem mass was held at the Roman Catholic Church of St Mary and St Peter, Canon Hourigan officiating. As the hearse and its cortege made its wav to the cemetery at St Saviour, the streets are said to have been'lined with sympathetic Spectators, the cortege being accompanied by a firing party of 40 men and the drum and fife band and buglers of the jersey (Garrison) Battalion. The firing party lined the pathway leading to the family vault at the east end of the burial ground, and the remains were carried through their ranks to the graveside, where the committal prayers were pronounced over another of Jersey’s young heroes.

The funeral was not to be the last of the family ordeals at this time, for the matter of settling Reggie’s estate dragged on for months afterwards. [4]

It is possible that Reggie’s death may have put paid to the Le Gallais family’s remaining at Broadlands. Philip was clearly not interested, and Josephine’s eldest daughter Leonie (more familiarly known as Lily) had already married her cousin Paul Simons in 1914. After Reggie’s loss, all that remained of the six-strong family were Josephine and her teenage daughter Simone. It was perhaps only a matter of time before the practicalities of this sparse household made themselves felt.

Sale advertisement

On 13 August 1919 Cyril Hawksford, placed an advertisement in the Evening Post to inform the island’s public of the sale of Broadlands, Grouville, ‘comprising one of the most commodious and best situated residential houses in the island.’

Like most sellers, Josephine hoped for a quick sale and offered the house up for occupation as early as Michaelmas - 29 September. It was said that besides its large vegetable and fruit gardens and greenhouse, the property also included a farm with 30 vergées, cottage, stables, storeroom and outhouses, to be sold separately or together.

Not long after this advertisment appeared, Philip, in his capacity as Reggie’s principle heir, sold La Hougue Bie to the Société Jersiaise. The contract was passed on 30 August that year. The search for a buyer for Broadlands took a little longer than Josephine hoped, the deed not being passed until 11 October. The price of £7, 200 was a reasonable one, 30% above the price paid by Mark Le Gallais 32 years earlier.

In April 1920, Josephine bought a property on the seafront at St Aubin by the name of Le Boulevard. However, as she grew older she decided to return to Luxembourg and there, in Capellen, died on 6 March 1933. Philip had remained in the armed forces until at least November 1938. After his first spell of service in France and Belgium in November 1914, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant the following June. Posted to Egypt between December 1915 and March 1916, he joined his brother Reggie in the Royal Flying Corps by a secondment from the Royal Sussex Regiment in April 1916. Although wounded within a month of joining, he was subsequently promoted to the rank of temporary captain in April 1917 before starting a spell at the Air Ministry a year later. Made an acting captain in August 1918, he remained at the Ministry until October 1919, when he returned to serve with his original regiment, the Royal Sussex.

His promotion to the rank of full captain was confirmed in July 1920, and in November 1922 he became engaged to Margaret Cecelia Beebe, daughter of Mr and Mrs Henry JBeebe of Springfield Massachusetts. They married the following year. He served on the north-western frontier of India in 1930-31,and was promoted major in March 1934, a rank in which he remained for the reest of his career in the army.

John Armstrong

The new owner of Broadlands turned out to be its most short-lived inhabitant to date. John Willlam Armstrong held the property for less than two years, and his recorded association with the island as a whole lasted for less than four. His origins remain obscure, and the parentage stated in local deeds is of little help: John William Armstrong, son of John.

Broadlands was the first property he bought in the island, followed - in February 1920 - by the 50 and 54 Esplanade, and 39, 41 and 43 Seaton Place. These properties were defined as ‘shops, offices, buildings and cottage’. By the summer of 1921 he suddenly changed tack and began to shed ail of his local property The deed relating to the sale of Broadlands in July that year proves that he had become indebted to the London Joint City and Midland Bank. He seems to have cleared his debts as well as making a more than decent profit on ail his acquisitions.

Broadlands was the first to go. While his tenure of the house may have been short, it was also highly significant, for he was the first to achieve what Josephine de Schaefer had only mooted: detaching the house from its agricultural estate and selling them as separate units to maximise the proceeds. Broadlands, with eight vergees of land, went for £8,248.87 His properties in St Helier followed in September of the same year for £7,750 - a profit of £750 on the original purchase price. When Broadlands’s new owner expressed an interest in having more of its neighbouring land, he sold her a further eight vergees for a £1,000.80. The remaining agricultural land that both Philippe du Heaume and Mark Le Gallais had tended, was sold the following November to Eugene Charles Perredes for £2,176, 90 bringing the total proceeds gleaned from Broadiands to over £ 11,436. In the space of two years Armstrong had made a 60% profit on the property.

He acquired Casa Melita in Green Street, St Helier in November 1921, selling it again in July 1923 at a 34% profi t. As this last sale was undertaken through an attorney, and there is no trace of him dying in the island, one can only assume that he was in the process of leaving Jersey at that time.

Lady Byrne

After Armstrong, the occupancy of Alice Jane Davidge Cleminson, wife of Sir William Patrick Byrne, ranks as the second shortest. However, she did use the house as a proper home.

Born on 4 January 1865 in St George’s Road, Camberwell, Surrey, Lady Byrne was the first child of James Lyons Cleminson and Emma Cole Davidge. She came from a gifted and enterprising family, both her father and grandfather being closely associated with the development of the railways. Like her father before her, Lady Byrne’s childhood may have been quite varied as her family followed her father around Britain, and then even further afield. For Lady Byrne the most significant move would have been that which took the Cleminsons across the Atlantic to Argentina, for it was there, aged 19 years, that she met and married her first husband, Australian farmer Alexander Trimmer, in Buenos Aires on 25 July 1884.

By this first marriage Lady Byrne is known to have had at least two children, a daughter and a son. By the time of her son’s baptism in August 1890, the Trimmers appear to have moved to Belgrano, a leafy residential suburb in the north-western corner of Buenos Aires. Their son is understood to have died in childhood. The marriage failed and ended in divorce.

Lady Byrne had returned to London by 1899 and there, on 11 December, married Donald Maclennan, who was born in Inverness in Scotland and emigrated to Argentina in 1871, spending ten years establishing himself as a successful cattle farmer. He returned to Scotland in 1881 and there took up the business of exporting British cattle breeds back to Argentina. After living in central London in the years immediately after their wedding, the Maclennans moved to Radnor Hall in Allum Lane, Elstree, where they would remain Donald’s death on 24 August 1917. Donald -was survived by their son and daughter.

Lady Byrne’s third marriage to Sir Willlam Patrick Byrne took place at the rarely used venue of Gray's Inn Chapel in central London on 26 July 1919. Sir William was born in Kingstown, County Dublin, on 12 February 1859. Educated in County Durham and Manchester, he later attained a Bachelor’s Degree at the University of London. Beginning his career in the General Post Office as a clerk in 1881, he was transferred to the Home Office in 1884. In 1886 he was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn, and seems to have remained working in legal offices until his return to the Home Office in 1891 as Private Secretary to the Permanent Under-Secretary. Appointed Private Secretary to the Home Secretary in 1895, he served as Assistant Under-Secretary at the Home Office between 1908 and 1913. Sir William was therefore one of three officials in the place of second-in-command, each having responsibility for different areas of policy and administration.

His first wife Maria died at her home in Courtfield Gardens on 6 March 1915. When Lady Byrne bought Broadlands on 16 July 1921, her principal intention must have been to find a peaceful home in which she and Sir William could spend their retirement. Problems arose over Lady Byrne’s desire to follow her husband into the Roman Catholic faith. Some time before September 1922 she received a letter from Monsignor Mann, of the Papal Court, regarding the Church’s position on her divorce from her first husband. The letter was kept locked in Lady Byrne's desk and she claimed that it went missing during her absence from the island between September 1922 and May 1923.

Bigamy accusation

On Christmas Eve1923 her butler, Thomas Baigent, entered the police station and signed a statement accusing Lady Byrne of bigamy. The letter from Monsignor Mann had come into his possession and was now being presented as evidence against her. The accusation was totally groundless, and within days Baigent found himself arrested, held on remand and accused of theft and criminal libel. The case came before the St Helier Police Court on 8tJanuary 1924, and besides being covered by the local press, also received the attention of ‘’The Times’’.

Baigent was defended by Advocate Charles Walter Duret Aubin, John Vaudin presiding as Magistrate. Baigent was said to be 53 and a native of Surrey He denied stealing the letter and in his lawyer pleaded that Baigent wished to make an unqualified withdrawal of every statement he had made to the police. He admitted that there was absolutely no ground for his stating that Lady Byrne had committed bigamy and he expressed his sincere regret to the Court and to Lady Byrne.

In mitigation, Aubin claimed that Baigent had served in both the Boer War and in the East during the ‘late war’. He had contracted malaria, and suffered frequent relapses. It was during one of these relapses, and while under the influence of a few drinks, that Baigent claimed he had come across the letter from Monsignor Mann. Although he had acted wrongly he had nevertheless acted with a certain honesty of purpose, for he went straight to the police with his complaint, thereby putting his head in the noose. He also denied stealing the letter from her desk.

Judge Vaudin dismissed. Aubin’s arguments entirely He was in no doubt that the letter was obtained illegally, adding that there was such a thing as theft by discovery. The contents of a letter were sacred to the person it was addressed to. If they took it for granted that what accused said was correct, it was clear that Lady Byrne must have been badly treated by her other servants. There was no doubt that Baigent took the letter for a purpose and used it.

Sir Willlam and Lady Byrne were called to give evidence. Sir William testified that Baigent had originally been in his employment but had been dismissed for ‘drunken habits and because of petty thefts committed’. Although it was never explicitly stated at the time, Lady Byrne appears to have given Baignt the benefit of the doubt by employing him herself, only to have her leniency betrayed. Lady Byrne merely reiterated her claim that Baigent had stolen the letter after breaking into her escritoire during her absence from the island. Even more damaging was the testimony given by Lady Byrne’s chauffeur, William Denyer. According to Denyer’s account of events, Baigent had told him that ‘he was going to put Lady Byrne through it for bigamy, and that he had the proof in his pocket’.

The judge ruled that the case should go before the Royal Court. On Saturday 12 January 1924 the case came before the Lieut-Bailiff Philip Aubin and Jurats Crill and Le Boutillier. Baigent was found guilty and the prosecution showed that he already had a criminal record for obtaining money by false pretences and - ironically - for committing and aiding bigamy himself.

The Jurats sentenced Baigent to four months imprisonment with hard labour.

By the beginning of the following December, Lady Byrne put Broadlands for sale through Norfolk and Prior of Berkeley Street, Piccadilly The estate agents advertised Broadlands as a Jersey freehold of eight acres, with Georgian house, overlooking the sea, adding: ‘This is a district famous for scenery A large sum has been spent on Broadlands in recent years. It is ready for entry, and inexpensive to maintain ’

Sir Willlam and Lady Byrne took themselves off to Monaco, a resort that had been acting as one of their winter retreats since at least February 1920. The marriage was dissolved in 1928 but it was not until late the following summer that she finally found a buyer for her jersey home, though on terms that would constitute a massive loss. The new owners got the house at a price well below that received by Herbert Du Heaume over 40 years earlier. Contract was passed after Lady Byrne had left Jersey. She received £3,500, a drop of 62% on what she paid John Armstrong eight years earlier.

Notes and references

  1. The full article can be found here: [1]
  2. This section of the original article, which traces the history of the Metz family in politics and business, has been greatly abridged here
  3. 20 in Jersey at the time
  4. In the interests of brevity these details have also been omitted
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