A Guernsey woman in her 90s has been presented with a flag to honour her uncle, who served in the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry during World War One.
Janet Van Zenten’s uncle, Charles Henry Machon, fought at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917, helping to hold off a major German counter-attack and allowing British soldiers to retreat to safety.
Mrs Van Zenten was presented with the framed flag by the Lieutenant Governor, Lieutenant General Sir Richard Cripwell CB CBE in a ceremony at Government House earlier this week.
Mrs Van Zenten was “surprised” by the gift, as she thought she’d been invited “just to have a few words with the governor”.
“It means an awful lot,” she said.
Her uncle “would be embarrassed, I think”, she said, as he was a “quiet, shy and nervous” man.
Mrs Van Zenten recalled: “I think he’d been through so much, and he’d also been through the Second World War in London.
“When I knew him he was very much on edge – but lovely, always kind, always happy to see you.
“He used to come over to visit his mother every summer, so it was lovely.”
Sharp shooter
Private Machon was born in Guernsey in 1889 and left the island aged 25 in 1914 to “answer Kitchener’s call” by joining the Army.
He was wounded in September 1915 in the Battle of Loos and later joined the newly-formed RGLI in May 1917.
Because of his experience, he was appointed as a “solo sharpshooter with the machine crew”, later training with “new fangled” tanks.
During the three-day siege at Masnières, near Cambrai, Private Machon was wounded with shrapnel.
In 1918, he was one of only 57 men from the RGLI, out of 1193, to survive the Battle of the Lys, one of the last major battles of the war and the RGLI’s last engagement.
Private Machon served until 1920.
Fundraising
Before it was presented to Mrs Van Zenten, the “faded, torn and frayed” flag had been hung for a year in the Town Church in St Peter Port, and then hung for a year in Masnières.
More than 400 men from the RGLI are believed to have died, been wounded, or gone missing during the battle in the French town.
Now the RGLI trust is aiming to raise £350,000 to preserve the building where the siege took place, at 16 La Rue Verte in Masnières.
Formerly a “small cafe in a little street”, the house was now “Guernsey’s most important building outside the island”, and would be restored to its original exterior.
A spokesperson said the centre would provide accommodation for students and visitors from Guernsey, making it a “truly inclusive historical asset for all”.