A travel chest which belonged to a Jersey-born Royal Navy officer has been repatriated from New Zealand thanks to efforts by Jersey Heritage.
Philippe d’Auvergne’s chest left New Zealand in August to sail across the world. It reached the UK in November, before finally returning to Jersey in time for Christmas.
Jersey Heritage senior registrar Helena Kergozou told Express: “Philippe d’Auvergne is an important figure in Jersey’s history, with a varied and dramatic career that included the role of naval officer, explorer, scientist and spymaster.
“Despite this fascinating life, we have very few objects in our collections directly connected to him, so we are delighted to have this new piece of history that will help us to share his story.”
Upon inspecting the Vice-Admiral’s travel chest, the Jersey Heritage team found a hidden compartment which was presumably used to smuggle secret documents during d’Auvergne’s time working for British Intelligence.
Born in St Ouen in 1754, d’Auvergne began his career in the Royal Navy at 16 years old and went on to begin a unique and sensational life by making a reportedly excellent impression on Catherine the Great when he met her two years later.
He then voyaged to the Arctic alongside a young Horatio Nelson in search of the Northwest Passage from Europe to the Pacific in 1773.
D’Auvergne continued his travels to Boston to command ships during the American War of Independence, the Cape of Good Hope and the islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz in the South Atlantic in 1781, and India in 1782 with the East India Company.
Whilst in the Navy, d’Auvergne was imprisoned, shipwrecked, court-martialled and then acquitted – before returning to Jersey to be charged with its naval defence during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794.
It was here that d’Auvergne begun to serve as spymaster for British Intelligence, using Jersey as a base to run agents and counterfeit money into France, and fishing boats and luggers to keep watch on the French Atlantic ports.
While in the island, d’Auvergne transformed the medieval chapel on top of the mound at La Hougue Bie to construct a tower, known as the Prince’s Tower. Tall enough to be seen from France, the tower was used to send signals there as a part of his intelligence efforts.
Following his death in 1816, the chest was handed down through the d’Auvergne family until Geoffrey d’Auvergne donated it to Jersey Heritage last year.
FIND OUT MORE…
You can see d’Auvergne’s chest at Jersey Heritage’s first ‘Discover the Collections’ event of the year which will take place this Saturday 17 January. More information is available here.