THE former Harbourmaster of Carteret, who did much to strengthen ties with Jersey as well as befriend Alphonse Le Gastelois, who lived in self-imposed exile on Les Écréhous reef for 14 years after being wrongly accused of being the Beast of Jersey, has died.
Alain Blancheton, who passed away recently at his home in Carteret, was a great lover of the Channel Islands, which he would often sail to on his cutter, La Croix Jugan.
He developed a particular interest in the status of the Crown Dependencies, Norman French, and Jèrriais.
A friend of Mr Le Gastelois, he would often visit the reef during winter to deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to the Jersey-born farmworker and fisherman, whom some Islanders accused of being responsible for a series of hideous sex crimes that plagued the Island in the late fifties and throughout the sixties.
Le Gastelois was arrested on suspicion of being the attacker and after 14 hours of questioning, he returned to his cottage in Faldouet to find its windows smashed.
In 1961, Le Gastelois was taken out to Les Écréhous and stayed there until April 1975, even after Edward Paisnel was arrested and sentenced for being ‘The Beast of Jersey’ in 1971.
Although exonerated, Le Gastelois remain living on La Marmotière, foraging and being supplied by M Blancheton and others, including people from Jersey.
Drawing on Norman law, he believed he could claim possession of the reef because he had lived there for more than a decade; hence the letter to the Queen, in her capacity as Duke of Normandy, which M Blancheton helped to draft and then post.
For his claim of sovereignty, Mr Le Gastelois was dubbed ‘the King of the Ecréhous’.
The request was ultimately unsuccessful and Les Écréhous remained a possession of Jersey.
In 1975, Le Gastelois was accused of burning down a hut on the reef and was arrested and brought back to Jersey, where he spent three months in prison on remand, only to be acquitted at the end of a Royal Court trial.
He stayed in Jersey and died aged 97 in 2012. M Blancheton gave the eulogy at his funeral at the Crematorium.
One Islander who knew M Blancheton was retired Assistant Harbourmaster Paul Mimmack.
He told the JEP: “Alain was a particularly good friend of Harbourmaster Capt Roy Bullen and his wife, who had a cottage in Carteret, and he was also well known to the Jersey boating fraternity there.
“When in Jersey, he would often come into the Harbour Office. As well as Roy, he became friends with a number of colleagues at the marina, including Kevin Le Cocq and Doug Syvret.”
M Blancheton was also involved in the Cercle de Carteret, an ‘amicale’ of people with the surname ‘de Carteret’ around the world.
