And Thereby Hangs a Tale (18 page)

Robin had visited the seat of local
government many times in the past, as each new bailiff required his dress robes
to be spotless on inauguration day, a ceremony he and Diana always
attended. But on this occasion Robin was led into the front office, where he
found a German officer seated in the Bailiff 's chair. One look at his crisp
uniform suggested that he wasn't going to enquire about Chapman's services.

'Mr Chapman,' the officer said with no trace
of an accent, 'my name is Colonel Kruger, I am the new commandant for the
Channel Islands. Perhaps you could start by telling me why you took Lord Trent
back to England?'

Robin didn't reply.

'No doubt Lord and Lady Trent are enjoying breakfast
at the Ritz Hotel while you languish in jail for your troubles.' The officer
rose and walked across the room, coming to a halt when the two men were
standing face to face. 'If you feel unable to assist me, Mr Chapman, you and
your wife will remain in jail until there is space on a ship to transport you
to the Fatherland.'

'But my wife was not involved,' Robin protested.

'In normal circumstances, I would be willing
to accept your word, Mr Chapman, but as your wife was Lord Trent's secretary...'

Robin said nothing. 'You will be sent to one
of our less well-appointed camps, unless, of course, one of you decides to
enlighten me on the reason Lord Trent needed to rush back to England.'

Robin and Diana remained in their tiny cell for
nineteen days. They were fed on bread and water, which until then Robin had
always assumed was a Dickensian myth. He began to wonder if the authorities had
forgotten about them.

He managed to pick up snippets of
information from those islanders who had been forced to work at the police
station, but the only thing of any consequence he was able to find out was that
German ships were docking at St Helier regularly to unload more soldiers, arms
and ammunition.

On the twentieth morning, one of their
informants told them that a ship would be arriving from Hamburg the following
day, and that he had seen their names on the
embarkation log for its return journey. Diana wept. Robin never slept while his
wife was awake.

In the middle of the night, when they were both
sleeping fitfully, the cell door was pulled open without warning. Two German soldiers
stood in the doorway. One of them asked politely if Mr Chapman would join them.
Robin was puzzled by the officer's courteous manner, and wondered if this was how
German soldiers behaved just before they shot you.

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 national-ity, 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 Fuhrer 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 store-room, 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 \u8364? applicaursÁs \u8364? appl 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.

The Royal Jersey Golf Club St Helier, Jersey
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.

Yours sincerely, J. L. Tindall (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 wemes plaf the As plaf thll as delivering several messages from their
children.

'Kate has a boyfriend,' he told them, 'and...'

'Oh, God,' said Robin. 'Am I that old?'

'Yes,' said Diana, smiling.

'I'm thinking of opening a fourth branch of Chapman's
in Brighton,' Malcolm announced over dinner that night. 'With so many factories
springing up in the area, they're sure to be in need of our services.'

'Not looking for a manager are you, by any chance?'
asked Robin.

'Why, are you available?' replied Malcolm, looking
genuinely surprised.

'No, he isn't,' said Diana firmly.

By the time Malcolm took the boat back home
to Southend the following Monday, Robin had perked up considerably. He even felt
able to joke about attending the interview at the Royal Jersey. However, when
the day came for him to face the committee, Diana had to escort him to the car,
drive him to the club and deposit him at the entrance to the clubhouse.

'Good luck,' she said, kissing him on the cheek.
Robin grunted. 'And don't even hint at how angry you are. It's not their fault
that the Germans destroyed all the club's records.'

'I shall tell them they can stick my
application form up their jumpers,' said Robin. They both burst out laughing at
the latest expression they'd picked up from the mainland. 'Do they have any
idea how old I'll be in fifteen years' time?' he added as he stepped out of the
car.

Robin checked his watch. He was five minutes
early. He straightened his tie before walking slowly across the gravel to the
clubhouse. So many memories came flooding back: the first time he had seen
Diana, when she had walked into the bar to speak to her brother; the day he was
appointed captain of the club -- the first Englishman to be so honoured; that
missed putt on the eighteenth that would have won him the President's Cup; not
being able to play in the final the following year because he'd broken his arm;
the evening Lord Trent had asked him to sail him to the mainland because the
Prime Minister needed his services; the day a German officer had shown him
respect and compassion after he had saved the lives of his countrymen. And now,
today... he opened the newly painted door and stepped inside.

He looked up at the portrait of Harry Vardon
and gave him a respectful bow, then turned his attention to Lord Trent, who had
died the previous year, having served his country during the war as the
Minister for Food.

'The committee will see you now, Mr Chapman,'
said the club steward, interrupting his thoughts.

Diana had decided to wait in the car, as she
assumed the interview wouldn't take long.

After all, every member of the committee had known
Robin for over twenty years. But after half an hour she began to glance at
her watch every few minutes, and couldn't believe
that Robin still hadn't appeared an hour later. She had just decided to go in
and ask the steward what was holding her husband up when the clubhouse door
swung open and Robin marched out, a grim look on his face. She jumped out of
the car and ran towards him.