The British in Corsica from the Mid- Nineteenth Century to the Eve of the Second World War

From Battleground to Playground: The British in Corsica from the Mid- Nineteenth Century to the Eve of the Second World War. Submitted by Elizabeth Constance Raikes to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History January, 2019. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. 1 Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to the late Professor Colin Platt (1934-2015), and those who go on being inspired by him and take heart from his encouragement. Without Colin Platt, this thesis would never have begun. Without the support of those in the present it would not have been completed. Thanks are due to my supervisor Professor Andrew Thompson for his thoroughness and insightful comments that have sharpened and focussed this work. Staffs at the University of Exeter Library, the British Library, the National Archives, the London Metropolitan Archives, City of London and the Archives Départementales La Corse du Sud have been particularly helpful at guiding me through the various systems, processes and care of resources to enable this thesis to benefit from a rich variety of sources. They are largely an unsung body of people but vital to researchers. Finally, I have taken advantage of the good nature of my husband, Graham, for proof reading numerous drafts and for accompanying me on our research visits to Corsica, although exploring Ajaccio whilst I spent hours in the archives was no great hardship. 2 ABSTRACT British interest in Corsica began in the mid-eighteenth century. In the changes that occurred in the island from 1794 to 1939, the British played a marked role. British involvement in the island is still evident with the survival of the Anglican Church in the capital city, Ajaccio, the names -- Rue Miss Campbell, Bois des Anglais, Cascade des Anglais-- and the monument to the British submarine, HMS Saracen, on Cupabia beach. The British came to the island as conquerors, sojourners, traveller-discoverers and permanent settlers, communities more usually associated with the formal or informal empire. This study investigates the nature, form and impact of these groups considering their motivation for going to Corsica, how far they were able to maintain and express a British national identity, their interaction with other communities, and their impact on the development of tourism, trade, industry and commerce. Britain’s political involvement in the island resulted in the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom of 1794-1796, and the legacy of that time was not forgotten. The perceived benefits of the island attracted a winter colony of sojourners in Ajaccio from the mid-nineteenth century. A few permanent settlers made investments in the economy, albeit with varying degrees of success; these investments gave an impetus to modernisation. Tourism received a stimulus towards the end of the nineteenth-century when traveller-discoverers came to follow their special interests in a place still seen to be unexplored. Then, in line with social and economic trends, tourism broadened its base and season. However, by the eve of the Second World War, the transition to mass tourism in the summer months was far from complete. The British involvement in Corsica led to a long-lasting and deep connection between the two countries seen today in the annual service in Westminster Abbey that commemorates the death in 1807 in London of the Corsican general Pascal Paoli. This thesis shows how this rapport was developed and sustained. In doing so, it illuminates an under-researched British presence on the periphery of Empire and contributes to the concept of networks of multiple British worlds. Specifically, what can be seen in Corsica, at a micro- level, is a British presence that was part of a wider British Mediterranean world that mirrored both the growth and waning of the British Empire. 3 CONTENTS Page List of Illustrations and Tables…………………………………………….7 Notes and Abbreviations…………………………………………………..8 Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………15 Introduction Methodology Literature Review Chapter 2 A Legacy of Memory………………………………………47 Introduction Mobilisation of Empathy A Land of Heroes Images of the Island and the Islanders Ultima Thule: A Land of Bounty Conclusion Chapter 3 Ajaccio: Becoming a Winter Health Station…………….69 Introduction A City of Hope An Antidote to Modernism Conclusion Chapter 4 Sojourners: Pioneering 1868-1880…………………….. 93 Introduction Tourism Infrastructure Conclusion 4 Chapter 5 Sojourners: A Home Away from Home…………………119 Introduction Local Space Transplanting Britishness The Quotidian Conclusion Chapter 6 Sojourners: A Construct of Communities ……………..144 Introduction The Corsican Stereotype A World Apart Common Ground Conclusion Chapter 7 Settlers: Trade and Industry…………………………...174 Introduction Major William George Murray Arthur Castell Southwell Conclusion Chapter 8 Settlers: Commerce…………………………………….204 Introduction The Cédrat Business The Maritime Agency The Port and Quay Conclusion Chapter 9 Tourists: Transition 1880-1920………………………….227 5 Introduction Continuity Change Transformation Conclusion Chapter 10 Tourists: Development 1920-39………………………258 Introduction Continuity of Winter Transition to Summer Unfulfilled Promise Conclusion Chapter 11 Conclusion……………………………………………….288 Appendix 1 Comparison of Smaller Health Stations, 1908……….315 Appendix 2 Corsican Mines with British involvement. …………….316 Bibliography……………………………………………………………..317 6 List of Illustrations and Tables Page Figure 1 Map of Corsica………………………………………………… 13 Figure 2 Plan of Ajaccio……………………………………………………14 Tables 1. Population and Percentage Growth of Riviera Towns and Ajaccio 1861- 1911……………………………………………………………………………83 2. Comparison of Communes by Density…………………………………….84 3. Foreigners in Ajaccio 1874-75 ……………………………………………...85 4. Ratio of Foreign families at Cannes 1867-1911 Compared to Population at Table 1…………………………………………………………………………86 5. Sojourners and Hotel Residence in April 1904……………………………127 6. Workers in British-Owned Mines…………………………………………..197 7. Bastia Cédrat Trade………………………………………………………….207 8. Exports of Gallic Acid ……………………………………………………....210 9. Exports of Mineral Water……………………………………………………..212 10. Bastia Shipping……………………………………………………………….218 11. Population Growth in Bastia 1876-1911……………………………………222 12. Pompéani’s Figures for Foreign Nationals at Ajaccio Winter 1903-04…. 231 13. Estimated Anglophone Visitors to Ajaccio…………………………………. 232 14. Guide book pages: Comparison of Ajaccio with Cannes and Menton…. 233 7 Notes and Abbreviations Terminology The subject matter of this thesis involves a number of terms or themes that have multi-faceted and sometimes contested terms. For the purpose of consistency and clarity I have defined these terms to best reflect contemporary usage and the Corsican context. The intertwined questions of Britishness and Englishness are live issues in historical writing today as they are in contemporary British society. The majority of sources are English rather than Scottish, Welsh or Irish. Much recent historical debate has centred on the question of primacy-whether English national identity or British national identity was the more potent or dominant historical force. The term ‘national identity’ is not consistently used in the historiography until the 1960s and is considered as part of a wider context that includes nation, nationality and nationalism. Identity is also shaped by contextual factors such as critical mass, space, strength and proximity of other groups, and is complicated by the custom of ‘English’ and ‘British’ often being seen as synonymous terms and by the assumed homogeneity of national groups.1 In reality, the threads of national identities developed alongside one another and knit together in a fashion that defies separation. This does not give the historian carte blanche to substitute British for English or to alternate at will but it is not always possible to choose a single adjective. In this thesis the term ‘Britain’ refers to the whole island containing England, Scotland, Wales and their dependencies. ‘British’ refers not only to the inhabitants of the islands of Britain but also in its wider sense of describing a political or imperial connection. In spite of this, several individuals quoted in the thesis refer to themselves as English even when clearly Scottish by birth. And, British travellers in Corsica were usually referred to as ‘Anglais’ or ‘Inglesi’ applying to residents from any part of Britain. Therefore, I will use the terms interchangeably unless for particular emphasis. ‘Our English Colony’ was the term used by the Corsicans as early as 1 Robert J.C. Young, The Idea of English Ethnicity, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), p.23. 8 1866.2 The British Dr Herbert Panmure Ribton (-1882) used the term ‘colonisation’ to describe the British influx in 1867.3 Both the Corsicans and the British used the term at the time of the establishment of the winter health station in Ajaccio and was understood at the time to be the grouping of a number of people of one nationality residing in a foreign city or country. The term ‘colony’ is being used here as it was understood from 1711 as ‘a number of people of one nationality residing in

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