The village of Soyécourt on the Somme battlefield

Researcher Chris Aubin wants to hear from anyone who has information about a rose called Soyécourt – the name of a destroyed French village on the Somme battlefield which was ‘adopted’ by Jersey after the First World War.

DO you have a rose in your garden or nursery called Soyécourt?

If so, its name will refer to a story dating back to the years after the First World War and an ‘adoption’ by Jersey of a small French community on the former Somme battlefield, to the regeneration and rebuilding of which the Island contributed.

And if you do have this rose, or have any information about it, researcher Chris Aubin would like to know about it.

He and his wife were holidaying in the area of the Somme a couple of years ago and noticed in their copy of a battlefield guide a reference to the village of Soyécourt, and its war memorial, which mentioned Jersey.

They went and looked, and, of course, had to investigate further . . .

The result was an article published in the Société Jersiaise Bulletin 2008. Shortly after publication he came across a reference to a rose called Soyécourt at the Jersey Nursery in 1921 – which must be related to the story that follows, a summary of his Bulletin article.

In the aftermath of the Great War a swathe of North-eastern France was left devastated. Homes, families and lives were destroyed, whole villages had ceased to exist, and yet the people returned.

Living with the carnage, the destruction, the devastation, the death, the unexploded ordnance and the general paraphernalia of war left behind, those who returned started to rebuild their lives and to re-engage in agricultural production as quickly as possible.

Of over 790,000 (some sources say 850,000) buildings damaged, over 148,000 were gravely damaged and 293,000 private buildings and farmhouses were completely destroyed. A total of 620 communes were razed to the ground.

A war memorial in Soyécourt

One of these was Soyécourt – a small village to the south of the Somme, with a population in 1999 of 212. It lies ten km to the South-West of Péronne, in Picardie; today it is quiet, peaceful, farming country. But in 1918 and 1919 in the midst of the devastation the people of Soyécourt started to return to the site of their village.

The French government undertook the initial task of clearing the land of ordnance, of infilling trench systems and of levelling the land so that agricultural production could resume as soon as practical with the farmers living in very rudimentary shelters. The early success of clearance and reintegration of farming was very varied across the North-East of France with resources stretched.

In June 1920, ‘The British League of Help for the devastated areas of France’ was inaugurated with an office and headquarters in London. Meetings were called and on 30 June 1920 all mayors were invited to a meeting at the Mansion House in London.
On 11 December 1920, Jersey’s Lieutenant-Governor, Major-General Sir William Douglas-Smith, wrote to the Bailiff, Sir William Venables Vernon, copying a letter and other material he had received from the Secretary of the League.

The Bailiff forwarded the correspondence to the Defence Committee. It was duly discussed at the committee meeting of 29 December, and the committee replied requesting a list of agricultural villages not yet ‘adopted’.

The Bailiff received a reply by late January which was passed to the Defence Committee, and the committee appointed a subcommittee to consider the matter, consisting the St Saviour Constable (J A Perrée), and the Deputies for St Saviour and St Brelade (Francis Bois and John Orange).

The sub-committee responded by requesting that the States Greffier write directly to the league’s secretary seeking confirmation as to whether the Village of Soyécourt (Somme) had been adopted, and if not, if it could be reserved pending further communication.

The sub-committee’s recommendation was adopted by the full committee, and it agreed to recommend to the States that a sum of £1,000 be sent as the Island’s contribution to Soyécourt.

It is possible to put the sum of £1,000 into context: on 8 October 1921 the property No 1 St Luke’s Villas in Beach Road was sold for £1,000.

On 15 March 1921 the States agreed to send, via the Lieutenant-Governor, a cheque for £1,000 payable to M V Gilmer, Secretary of the league.

In the Evening Post report on the sitting, it was mentioned that Jurat Payn believed that members would have been aware of the trend in England of adopting French towns; the village of Soyécourt had been ‘entirely wiped out’.

The Bailiff also write a letter to the French Consul in Jersey on 5 April, enclosing a cheque for 56,000FF payable to the Préfet de la Somme. He asked that the cheque be forwarded with the Island’s best wishes for the early return to ease and prosperity for the inhabitants of Soyécourt and wished for the money to be used for the reconstruction of some of the most destroyed homes and other pressing needs of the villagers.

The first annual report of the league makes further interesting comparisons: although no total figure is given for the money donated in the first year, it is possible to calculate that at least £32,800 had been subscribed and at least £43,000 had been sent in currency or in goods and materials, and a further 37,000 francs (approximately £660) had been sent. Jersey’s contribution to the league was big for its size and population.

In June 1922 the Lieutenant-Governor received a letter from the league which was forwarded to the Bailiff and the Defence Committee and was discussed by the committee. The league had suggested that collections be made for the benefit of Soyécourt in the various churches in the Island. It was proposed that a collection date be set for the first Sunday in July following and the Greffier was asked to write to all Rectors, Superintendents and Pastors, expressing the wish that the suggestion might be well received and worthy contributions made; these were to be sent to the committee president at the States Greffe.

By 11 July the first results of this appeal had been received, and it totalled £122 15s 10d and 27FF. The money was sent to the States Treasurer pending further instructions.

By the committee meeting of 13 October 1922 further sums had come in and the total received from the appeal had reached £179 6s 8d. The committee asked the Bailiff to arrange for a cheque to be drawn for this sum and sent on to the French authorities for the benefit of the village of Soyécourt.

A war memorial in Soyécourt

On 19 May 1923 the Bailiff acknowledged a letter from the Maire de Soyécourt inviting him to visit the community. The Bailiff accepted the offer but no date was fixed. The Bailiff advised that he had been in the general area several times before the war.

A short report appeared in the The Evening Post of 8 September 1924. An unnamed correspondent reported on a recent visit to France by a member of the States from one of the eastern parishes and some friends, during which they had visited Soyécourt, unofficially. When it was realised that they were from Jersey they had been introduced to the Maire, who took them to points of interest.

They were told that for six days and nights troops and equipment had passed through the village; this was then followed by a German advance when everything was demolished and the Maire himself carried off into captivity until the Armistice. By the time of the visit 60 houses had been built and it was thought that the village would soon be ‘its old self in new form’.

The party were informed that the Jersey contribution had not yet been touched but that it was being held back to pay for a new water supply to the village once the housing had been addressed. It appears that in Soyécourt they were even talking of the ‘electric light’ – it was suggested in the report that ‘they will move more quickly in that direction than we in Jersey have’.

Notice of the official unveiling of the monument was sent to the Bailiff by the Maire for 24 October 1925. The Bailiff was unable to attend but said that the memory of the glorieux morts of both France and Britain was undying and that he and the Island would be present de coeur as Soyécourt was the Island’s adopted daughter.’
. . . which brings us back to the Soyécourt rose.

• Anyone with any information about this rose – or, better still, has one – is asked by Chris Aubin to get in touch with him at cnjaubin@hotmail.com.