It’s Anzac Day today here in Australia, similar to Armistice Day or Rememberance day in France and the UK. A day for commemoration and rememberance of soldiers and all those who served their country in the wars of the early 20th century. Its unlikely any European family remained untouched by these wars, whose legacy, at great human cost, led to an era of relative peace in our lifetime. I always like to attend the Anzac day dawn service to bear witness to the sacrifices and suffering of our family members, and to reflect on the tragedy of human nature that we never seem to learn from these bitter lessons, and are clearly incapable of co-operatively sharing our delicate and precious little blue planet.
This year I’m thinking of the sacrifices and loss of Celestine’s beloved brother, Auguste Guegan.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.*
Augustin Jacques Marie Guegan was the oldest child of the Guegan family, born in Begard (France) on 1 February 1883. At the age of 15, he emigrated to Guernsey with his parents and sisters and in 1901 the family are living in Rue a L’or lane where Auguste is listed as being 18 and working as a labourer. Celestine wrote in her diary of a happy memory around this time
“On New Years, our family went to the Goasdoue’s to spend the day: eating and drinking, and in the evening dancing with Yves and Baptiste, to the sound of Auguste’s accordian. Our mothers chatted in front of a blazing fire, and our fathers drank beer while discussing politics. A happy day.”
By the1911 census, he’s in Castel, St Andrews, employed as a farmer and married to Marguerite Le Fevre (a fellow Breton, born in Plouha) (1). When World War 1 begins, the family are still in Guernsey, now expanded to include a baby daughter, Yvonne.
In 1914, when Germany declared war on 1 August, like so many other young French men (including our grandfather Yves Marie and his brothers and Louis Rolland) he returned to France. He enlisted in 48e Régiment d’infanterie (subsumed into 101e later) (2) which was based in Guingamp, the heartland of our Breton family ancestors.
Within months, by October 1914, the regiment were sent to defend Arras in the Artois region (later to be known as the Western Front). On a fateful day of 9 May, 1915, the regiment took part in what came to be known as the second battle of Artois . Their losses were huge, and tragically Auguste was one of 1000 men gravely injured or killed in that one day. For those interested in the battle details, you can read more here. All we know is that Auguste died of war wounds at St Nicolas (a small village to the north of Arras which was on the battlefront) on this day (3)
Over four years of battle, more than eight million French men served in the army, and historians have estimated that 1.3–1.5 million of them died in combat, representing between 16% and 18% of the male population of conscripts. A death toll that was unprecedented, and which impacted the whole next generation and changed the future of France.
Auguste was not forgotten. In Celestine’s papers, we have 2 postcards of the dedication of a new monument “Aux morts pour la Patrie” in Saint Laurent, Bretagne, dated from June 1922. With so many of their lost sons buried or lost where they fell in the battlefield far from home, local villages started to erect these monuments all over France during this period, to commemorate the sacrifices of all those who paid the ultimate price. We can find the name of Augustin Jacques Marie Guegan, as a son of this village, listed here. His name also appears on the Memorial Plaque from French Consulate’s Office in Jersey. Now at St Thomas’ Church, Jersey.
Auguste was buried at Cimetière militaire La Targette, near Arras. Exact location is Square 21, row 10, no 5238. If you are ever nearby, do pay your respects.
After his death, we know that his wife Marguerite and little Yvonne, who was only two years old when he died, moved in with Celestine’s parents and they all later relocated back to St Laurent in France. Yvonne went on to marry and have a son, and kept in touch with her extended Guegan family all her life, keeping up a correspondence with Celestine and maintaining her connection with the little island of Guernsey where she was born.
Sources
- Guernsey census, 1911
- Guerre de 1914-1918 Livre d’Or de L’Aveyron (it looks like actually the 48e was a compagnie which formed part of the 101e regiment. “Par décret du 2 mai 1859 le 48e régiment d’infanterie de ligne fourni 1 compagnie pour former le 101e régiment d’infanterie de ligne.” Source https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/48e_r%C3%A9giment_d%27infanterie Details to be confirmed.)
- War record search for Augustin Jacques Marie Guegan on https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/
- * This poem is widely read at Anzac day services across Australia, since 1921.
Guernsey Goasdoue 