80 ENGLISH GARHISOX OF (lUEIlXSEV. 



Vale Castle, Le Keye, Richmond, Hommet, (irand Rocque, 

 and Jerbonrg. 



On the 24th Marcli, 1783, the 104th Regiment, number- 

 ing about 600 men, stationed at Fort George, and composed 

 almost entirely of Irishmen, nnitinied ; only the Grenadier 

 company, under Captain Fenwick, stationed at the Vale 

 Castle, remained faithful.* It is stated that at the instigation 

 of some discharged men of the 83rd Regiment, the men of the 

 104th demanded of their officers that the gates of the fort 

 should not be shut at night, and that it being a time of peace 

 they should not do any more duty. Lieutenant Governor 

 Irwing appeased this first outbreak by imprudently yielding 

 to their demands. A few days later the men iired on their 

 officers while in their mess room after dinner. The officers 

 escaped without injury and took refuge in the town, with the 

 exception of two who concealed themselves in a coal-hole. 

 This attack becoming known in the tow^n about 8 o'clock in 

 the evening, the other regiment stationed in the island, the 

 18th or Royal Irish, and the Militia Regiments Avere assembled 

 to assist in suppressing the mutiny, and surrounded Fort 

 George about midnight. Finally, after some parleying, the 

 mutineers laid down their arms and quitted the fort, apparently 

 on promise of })ardon, as no one seems to have been 

 punished I 



In 1799 the garrison w^as reinforced by a foreign contin- 

 gent of 6,000 Russian troops, who were quartered in Guernsey 

 for several months after the unfortunate expedition of the 

 Duke of York to Holland. They were stationed at De Lancey 

 Hill in the barracks already erected there and in temporary 

 wooden buildings. Many of them are said to have died of 

 sickness contracted in their previous campaign, and were 

 buried in an enclosure near the Vale Castle, w^here their 

 graves are still to be seen. At the end of their stay a feud 

 unfortunately broke out between them and the inhabitants, 

 which arose from one of the soldiers being w^ounded by a 

 farmer who caught him robbing his orchard. This feud 

 became so acute that as they Avere being embarked on the 

 transports to convey them to Russia, the guns of the castle 

 Avere kept loaded and trained for fear that they should attempt 

 to reland and revenge themselves on the inhabitants.! 



During the wars with the French Republic at the end of 



the 1 8th century, and with Napoleon at the beginning of the 



last century, a very large garrison was kept in the island. 



According to Monsieur de Magnac's MS. on " La defense de 



* Do., p. il7. t Duncan, Hist. Guernsey, p. 175. 



