Depiction of the Battle of Fishguard
Picture of Jemima Nicholas rounding up Frenchmen
Memorial to Nicholas
February 24th 1797: Last Invasion of Britain fails
On this day in 1797 the Battle of Fishguard - otherwise known as the Last Invasion of Britain - was won by the defending British. The invasion, the last to occur on British soil, was led by Revolutionary France and was devised by General Lazare Hoche. The French wished to support the burgeoning republican movement in Ireland and encourage a working class uprising in Britain, and planned to send a main fleet to Ireland, with others as diversions on the British coast. However, ultimately only one of the forces reached Britain, landing on the Welsh coast on February 22nd 1797. They had intended to reach Bristol, but poor weather forced them to land at Fishguard Bay, Wales. Under Irish-American Colonel William Tate over one thousand soldiers arrived in Wales and were immediately confronted by local defenses. After hundreds of recently hired troops deserted - the seasoned soldiers were on campaign with Napoleon Bonaparte - the remaining French forces were faced with around five-hundred British soldiers. The small band successfully repelled French invasion, and Tate was forced to surrender on February 24th. Some of those defending Britain were not even trained in the military, and included many local women posing as soldiers. One famous such woman was forty-seven year old Jemima Nicholas, the wife of a Fishguard cobbler, who personally apprehended twelve French troops. 1797 thus remains the last attempted invasion of the island, when Britain was defended by a ragtag team of Welsh townspeople.
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