The memorial to Jemima Nicholas in the centre of Fishguard (Abergwaun), Wales.
ON 22nd February 1797, French warships landed on British soil. Flushed with recent triumphs, the French revolutionaries had dispatched a ragbag of ex-convicts and poorly trained soldiers in just four ships to liberate the British from George III’s tyranny. The somewhat ambitious plan was to capture the city of Bristol, but unfavourable weather forced the invaders into the Welsh port of Fishguard.
There, they discovered a trading ship laden with food and drink, which may explain their excited reports of thousands of well-armed British redcoats surrounding the harbour, when there was nothing but a handful of Welsh villagers in traditional scarlet dress.
Not that the Welsh were content to be spectators. Jemima Nicholas grabbed a pitchfork and rounded up twelve of the French before locking them in a church, deservedly entering Welsh folklore with the title ‘Jemima Fawr’, ‘Jemima the Great’. Two days later the hapless revolutionaries surrendered, to a small local force.
Précis
Following the French Revolution of 17989, the authorities in Paris wanted their movement to spread to neighbouring Britain. They mustered four ships and sent them to set Bristol aflame with revolutionary fervour, but they were driven off-course to Fishguard. Local resident Jemima Nicholas and later a small local militia rounded the invaders up with little fuss. (55 / 60 words)
