“LION OF THE CHANNEL”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1939, Page 8

“LION OF THE CHANNEL”

ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH. EXPLOITS IN SYRIA RECALLED. On May 5 the anniversary of the death of Napoleon was celebrated and May 26 was the ninety-ninth anniversary of that of Sir Sidney Smith, the “Lion of the Channel,” the first to inflict a set-back on the great soldier. By a curious trick of fate, both men lie buried in Paris, Napoleon beneath the gilded dome of the Invalides, Sir Sidney Smith in Pere Lachaise ceme ■ tery, on the north-eastern heights of the French capital. It was Sir Sidney Smith who defended Saint John of Acre, in Syria, in 1799, against. Napoleon wheri he invaded Egypt. Landing with the crews of three British vessels at a desperate juncture, Sir Sidney Smith took over the defence of the town from the Turkish leader. For no less than three months Napoleon laid siege to the town, making eleven attempts to take it, and many times his troops penetrated the outer works, on each occasion to be repulsed, and when at last he raised the siege he had lost no fewer than 4000 men and eight generals. The defence of St John of Acre was but one exploit in a wonderful life of adventure. In, the navy at the age of eleven, Sir Sidney Smith had already seen much, service before he was captain of a frigate. His raids had earned for him among French sailors the name of the “Lion of the Channel.” When trying to cut out an enemy vessel, on April 18, 1796, he was driven inshore near Havre and captured. From Havre he was sent to Paris, where he was imprisoned in the Temple. Captured with him was a French emigre, whom he passed off as his English valet. After two years of captivity, Sir Sidney Smith appealed to the French to allow his valet to return to England. His friend on arrival in London laid a plan before the Admiralty for the escape of Sir Sidney Smith. One day a coach drove up to the Temple, and an elaborately dressed military officer alighted and presented to the Governor an order duly signed and sealed for the transfer of Sir Sidney to another prison. The prisoner was handed over, the Governor bidding him farewell. The coach drove off, but so excited was the driver, a royalist in disguise, at the complete success of the plot that he drove the coach up on to the pavement a hundred yards from the prison where it turned over. In the confusion Sir Sid • ney escaped, and despite all attempts to catch the fugitive, he crossed the country from the capital to the coast, hiding in the homes of royalists. On the last stage of his escape he drove to Havre with a friend in a hired coach. The coachman suddenly stopped and pointed to the spot where Sir Sidney Smith had been captured. Then he drove on, to the relief of the passengers. Sir Sidney was smuggled on board a fishing boat, which had to sail out of Havre, beneath the sterns of three warships. When the open Chan ■ nel was reached, the fugitive was put into a rowing boat and duly picked up by an English frigate that had been warned. After 1815, the English admiral, who was a great lover of France, returned to Paris, where he lived until his death in 1340. the same year that the remains of Napoleon were brought back to Paris and interred in the Invalides. The grave of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith lies in the higher part of the cemetery, not far from the graves of a number of Napoleon’s generals.