Jemima Nicholas
Jemima Nicholas (also spelt Niclas; c. 1750 – July 1832), also known as Jemima Fawr, was a Welsh heroine during the 1797 Battle of Fishguard (commonly known as the last invasion of Britain).
![](../I/m/JemimaNicholasGrave.jpg)
Early life
Jemima Nicholas was the daughter of William and Elinor Nicholas of Llanrhian, and was baptised in Mathry in 1755.[1][2] She was a cobbler or a cobbler's wife.[3][4]
The Battle of Fishguard
In 1797, 1400 French troops, many of them drawn from prisons,[5] sailed from Camaret and landed at Llanwnda in Wales.[6] Armed with a pitchfork, Nicholas led a group of women and rounded up twelve French soldiers who had been drinking, and held them captive inside a locked church overnight. The French surrendered shortly afterwards at the Royal Oak.[1] She was awarded a lifetime pension for her efforts.[7]
A Jemima Nicholas was also involved with rioting in Fishguard in 1824, though she was not convicted of any crime.[8]
Legacy
She died at the age of 82, in 1832. Her grave in Fishguard[9] was marked with a plaque in 1897, on the occasion of the invasion's centennial. She is featured in the Last Invasion Tapestry commissioned by the Fishguard Arts Society.[10] In 2019, a hat said to have belonged to Jemima NIcholas sold to one of her brother's descendants at a charity auction, for ₤5000.[11][12]
The town of Fishguard had an official Jemima Nicholas re-enactor, Yvonne Fox, until her death in 2010;[3] A new Jemima, Jacqui Scarr, was named in 2013.[13] A children's book about Nicholas, Jemima Nicholas: Heroine of the Fishguard Invasion by Sian Lewis, was published in 2012, as part of a series on Welsh women's history.[7][14]
References
- "Invasion heroine's records find". BBC News. 4 April 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
- "Jemima steps out of the shadows". Tenby Observer. 7 April 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Hancock, Lucy (2019). "Jemima Nicholas, a Fishguard Heroine". Coastal Cottages. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Hayward, Will (28 October 2017). "The Welsh woman with a pitchfork who faced down an invading army". WalesOnline. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Shakespeare, Andrew-Paul (22 February 2019). "The Glorious Army of France, Beaten by a Bunch of Girls!". Medium. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Johnson, Ben. "The last invasion of Britain by the French at Fishguard". Historic UK. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- "The Royal Oak, Fishguard". Land of Legends. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Lewis, Mike (3 May 2017). "Did heroine Jemima have a later brush with the law?". County Echo. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- "The Parish of Fishguard". The Church in Wales. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- "Jemima the Great and the Fishguard Tapestry". Historic Houston:. 1 September 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2020.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
- "War heroine's traditional hat sells for £5,000". BBC News. 25 August 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Lewis, Mike (1 August 2019). "Last Invasion heroine Jemima Nicholas' relative flies in from Oz". County Echo. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- "New actress to play invasion heroine". BBC News. 11 April 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2020.
- Lewis, Siân, 1945- (2012). Jemima Nicholas : heroine of the Fishguard Invasion. Howells, Graham. Llanrwst: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch. ISBN 978-1-84527-364-4. OCLC 782986756.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)