Джеффри Арчер - And Thereby Hangs a Tale

He accompanied the soldiers up the stairs. Was he being escorted to the ship? Surely not, or they would have taken Diana as well. Once again he was taken down the street in the direction of the Bailiff’s Chambers, but this time the soldiers walked by his side, making no attempt to hold on to him.

When he entered the Bailiff’s office, Colonel Kruger looked up from behind his desk, an anxious look on his face. He didn’t waste his words. The ship that was meant to transport prisoners to Hamburg has struck a rock just outside the harbour.’ Robin wondered which brave islander had managed to remove the warning lights. ‘It’s sinking fast,’ continued the colonel. The lives of all those on board will be lost, including several civilians, unless the lifeboat is sent out to rescue them.’ He avoided saying ‘my countrymen’.

‘Why are you telling me this, Colonel?’ asked Robin.

‘The lifeboat crew is refusing to cast off without their head launcher, so I am asking you —’ he paused — ‘begging you, to join them before it’s too late.’

Strange, the things that pass through one’s mind when faced with a moral dilemma, Robin thought. He knew the directive by heart. It is the duty of every member of the RNLI to go to the aid of anyone in distress on the high seas, irrespective of their nationality, colour or creed, even if they are at war with Britain. He nodded curtly at the colonel.

Out on the street a car was waiting, its door open, to take him to the harbour. Fifteen minutes later they cast off.

Robin and the rest of the crew returned to Arden Rock several times that night. In all, they rescued 73 passengers, including 11 German officers and 37 crew members. The remainder were civilians who had been selected to assist in the administration of the island. A cargo of arms, ammunition and transport vehicles was resting on the bottom of the ocean.

When Robin carried the last of the survivors back to the safety of the island, two German officers were waiting for him as he stepped off the lifeboat. They handcuffed him and escorted him back to the police station. As he walked into the cell, Diana smiled for the first time in days.

When the cell door was opened the following morning, two plates of bacon and eggs, along with cups of hot tea, were laid before them by a young German corporal.

‘Last breakfast before they execute us,’ suggested Robin as the guard slammed the cell door behind him.

‘It wouldn’t be hard to guess what your final request will be,’ said Diana, smiling.

A few minutes after they’d devoured their unexpected feast, another soldier appeared and told them he was taking them to the commandant’s headquarters.

‘I shall be happy to accompany you to the Bailiff’s Chambers,’ said Robin defiantly.

‘We’re not going to the Connétable,’ said the soldier. ‘The commandant has requisitioned the golf club as his new headquarters.’

‘Your final wish has been granted,’ said Diana as she and Robin settled into the back seat of a staff car, which brought a puzzled expression to the young German’s face.

When they arrived at the club, they were taken to Lord Trent’s office. Colonel Kruger stood up and offered them both a seat. Diana sat down, but Robin remained standing.

‘This morning,’ the colonel said, ‘I rescinded the order that you were to be shipped to prison in Germany, and issued a new directive, releasing you immediately. You will therefore be allowed to return to your home. Should you be foolish enough to break the law a second time, Mr Chapman, you will both be aboard the next ship that sails for Germany. Think of it as what’s called, in your country, a suspended sentence.’

The commandant once again rose from behind his desk. ‘You are a remarkable man, Mr Chapman. If your fellow countrymen are forged from the same steel, your nation may not prove quite as easy to defeat.’

‘Perhaps you should read Henry V ,’ suggested Robin.

‘I have,’ replied the commandant. He paused and looked out of the window towards the weed-covered eighteenth green before adding, ‘But I’m not sure the Führer has.’

The remainder of Robin’s war turned out to be something of an anticlimax, except for those occasions when the klaxon sounded and he had to pedal furiously along the seafront to join his crew at the boathouse. He stayed on as the lifeboat’s head launcher while the Germans remained on the island.

During the occupation, members of the Royal Jersey were not permitted to enter the clubhouse, let alone play a round of golf. As the years passed, the finely tended course became so overgrown with weeds and nettles you couldn’t tell where the rough ended and the fairways began. Clubs rusted in the storeroom, and there were only tattered flags fluttering on the ends of their poles to show where the greens had been.

On 9 May 1945, the day after VE day, an advance party of English troops landed on Jersey and the German commandant on the Channel Islands surrendered.

Once the thirty-six thousand intruders had finally departed, the locals quickly did everything in their power to restore the old order. This didn’t prove easy, as the Germans had destroyed many of the island’s records, including applications for membership of the Royal Jersey Golf Club.

Other forms of life did return to normal. Robin and Diana were standing on the dockside waiting to welcome the first ferry from Weymouth when she sailed into St Helier on 12 July.

‘Oh my goodness!’ cried Diana the moment she saw her children. ‘How they’ve grown.’

‘It’s been more than five years since we last saw them, darling,’ Robin was reminding her as a young man accompanied by his teenage sister stepped on to the quayside.

The Chapman family spent six happy weeks together before Harry reluctantly returned to the mainland to take up his place at Durham University, and Kate went back to Weybridge to begin her final year at St Mary’s; both were looking forward to returning to Jersey at Christmas.

Robin was reading the morning paper when he heard a knock on the door.

‘I have a recorded delivery for you, Mr Chapman,’ said the postman. ‘I’ll need a signature.’

Robin signed on the dotted line, recognizing the crest of the Royal Jersey Golf Club stamped in the top left-hand corner of the envelope. He ripped it open and read the letter as he returned to the kitchen, and read it a second time before he handed it across to Diana.

9 September 1946

Dear Sir,

We have reason to believe that at some time in the past you applied to become a member of the Royal Jersey Golf Club, but unfortunately all our records were destroyed during the German occupation.

If you still wish to be considered for membership of the club, it will be necessary for you to go through the application process once again and we will be happy to arrange an interview.

Should your application prove successful, your name will be placed on the waiting list.

(Secretary)

Robin swore for the first time since the Germans had left the island.

Diana could do nothing to console him, despite the fact that his brother was coming across from the mainland to spend his first weekend with them since the end of the war.

Robin was standing on the dockside when Malcolm stepped off the Southampton ferry. Malcolm was able to lift his older brother’s spirits when he told him and Diana all the news about the company’s expansion plans, as well as delivering several messages from their children.

‘Kate has a boyfriend,’ he told them, ‘and—’

‘Oh, God,’ said Robin. ‘Am I that old?’