44. John and Esther De Gruchy of Jersey and Hampshire

Jean (John) Philippe De Gruchy was born in 1837 in St Saviour, Jersey. His parents were Philippe and Marie De Gruchy.

Esther Deslandes was born in 1831 in St Saviour, Jersey. Her parents were Daniel and Elizabeth Deslandes.

John was an apprentice shipwright at age 13 in 1851 (his father was a seaman). Esther was a dressmaker before she married. They were married in 1858 in St Saviour. In 1861, they were in St Helier, with Jean recorded a ship carpenter, and Esther still making dresses.

They had six children, the older ones being born in St Helier:

• 54.2.1 - Esther Elisabeth De Gruchy (1859)
• 54.2.2 - Jane Elizabeth De Gruchy (1862)
• 54.2.3 - John Philip De Gruchy (1863). John died in 1880.
• 54.2.4 - Emma Maria De Gruchy (1866). Emma died in 1872.
• 54.2.5 - Ada Ann De Gruchy (1870, Portsea)
• 54.2.6 - Alice De Gruchy (1872, Portsea)

In 1871, the family had moved over the water to Portsea, so that John could work as a shipwright in Portsmouth Royal Naval Dockyard. He had joined the biggest industrial site in the world. They were still there in 1881 and 1891, living in a terraced house at 24 Tottenham Road, a mile and a half from the Dockyard. The National Archives hold the dockyard's records.

The dockyard's Victory Gate through which Jean may have walked every morning (my photo)

The dockyard was probably started by King Alfred in the C9. Britain's first warship was built there in 1497, in the country's first dry dock. Mary Rose was built there for King Henry VIII in 1511. Nelson's HMS Victory (Chatham, 1765) was still in active service at Portsmouth in 1831.

Dickens' Birthplace (my photo)

Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth in 1812. He wrote about conditions affecting the Waddiloves and toured America after the Civil War which may have enriched the Greens. He returned on the Cunard liner SS Russia, which will feature again in our story. And he died in London a few weeks before Ada was born (150 years ago, at the time of writing this piece). And Ada was born in the family home, half a mile from where Dickens had been born 58 years earlier.

The adoption of steam propulsion for warships in the mid C19 had led to large-scale changes in the Royal Dockyards. The Navy's first 'steam factory' had been built at Woolwich in 1839; but it soon became clear that the site was far too small. Therefore, in 1843, work began in Portsmouth on reclamation of land to allow a huge expansion. Technological change affected not only ships' means of propulsion, but the materials from which they were built. By 1860 wooden warships, on which our ancestors had presumably cut their teeth were now too vulnerable to modern armaments. HMS Warrior was Britain's first iron-hulled battleship and the pride of Queen Victoria's fleet.

Naval Store, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1776 (my photo)

Many of the buildings in the Historic Dockyard were built while John was working there. My other photos of the dockyard are here.

The changeover to metal hulls not only required new building techniques, but also heralded a dramatic and ongoing increase in the potential size of new vessels. From 1867 work was begun on a complex of three new interconnected basins, each of 14–22 acres. Each basin served a different purpose: ships would proceed from the repairing basin, to the rigging basin, to the fitting-out basin, and exit from there into a new tidal basin, ready to take on fuel alongside the sizeable coaling wharf there.

Portsmouth Basin and Docks (my photo)

Three dry docks were also constructed as part of the plan, as well as parallel pair of sizeable locks for entry into the basin complex; the contemporary pumping station which stands nearby not only served to drain these docks and locks, but also delivered compressed air to power cranes, caissons and capstans. This "Great Extension" of Portsmouth Dockyard was largely completed by 1881. Two more dry docks, Nos 14 & 15, were built alongside the Repairing Basin in 1896. More information here.

The preserved Historic Dockyard in 2005 (credit)

Examples of ships built while John was there show how much things moved on in the late C19. HMS Calliope (1884) exemplified the late Victorian navy - she was built on the same pattern as earlier wooden ships but had a steel frame; as well as full sail rig, she had a powerful engine. But she was built to an old design HMS Devastation (1871) was low in the water with masts only for signalling purposes. Her guns were mounted in turrets, and she was armoured with iron plates 12 inches thick.
 Many of the ships built in this time saw service in WWI.

HMS Dreadnought revolutionised naval power with her main battery of 12 inch calibre guns when it was launched in 1906. HMS Andromeda, built in 1967 and decommissioned in 2012 marked the end of warship production.

Portsmouth Dockyard (credit)

But by 1901, Jean had retired back to St Helier; Esther was with him. Jean lodged with his nephew, Arthur Boyce, an armourer, in St Helier in 1911. Esther is absent and died a year later.


More on these individuals in Chapter 54.

Next (John's siblings)