Julian Watts-Russell and the English Zouaves
Visitors to the church of the Venerable English College in Rome have so much to take in that they might easily miss a small, cylindrical monument standing by the main entrance. Nevertheless, it is one of the church’s most unusual memorials. Originally erected near the town of Mentana (Lazio), it honours a young Englishman, Julian Watts-Russell (1850–67), who ‘shed his blood for the Holy See’ on 3 November 1867.
Monument to Julian Watts-Russell, Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, Venerable English College, Rome
Close-up image of the inscription at the base of the monument
Watts-Russell belonged to the Pontifical Zouaves, a unit in the papal army that was set up in 1861 and consisted mostly of foreign volunteers. They came from all over the world – the largest contingents originated from the Netherlands, France and Belgium, but there were many from England, Scotland, Ireland and as far afield as Canada – and they flocked to Rome to defend the pope and his temporal power during the struggle for Italian unification. Many nineteenth-century armies had similar regiments of Zouaves, named after the fearsome mountain fighters of the Algerian highlands and wearing an exotic uniform loosely based on their dress.
Photographs above and below of two French Pontifical Zouaves, circa 1868, in their distinctive uniform
Despite the constant threat of invasion and revolution, the Pontifical Zouaves spent much of their time on guard and garrison duty, and fighting brigands in the Roman campagna. However, Garibaldi’s attempted attack on Rome in 1867 involved them in a series of actions, culminating in their victory at Mentana. At this stage, only a few Englishmen had joined the Zouaves, but two of them paid the ultimate price in the campaign: Alfred Collingridge (1846–67), originally from Godington, Oxfordshire, was killed during the action at Monte Libretti on 13 October, and Julian Watts-Russell was killed at Mentana on 3 November 1867.
The Battle of Mentana, 3 November 1867, as depicted in the Illustrated London News
Watts-Russell belonged to a wealthy Staffordshire family and his father was a friend of St John Henry Newman (1801–90). Educated at Ushaw College, Durham, he was known for his deep piety and, after his death, his body was brought back to Rome. Many queued outside a house near Santa Maria Maggiore to pay their respects as he lay in state, with a wreath of white roses, crucifix and martyr’s palm; they kissed his body and took away the evergreens that lay around him as souvenirs. His Requiem was held at the English College, celebrated by the Rector, Henry O’Callaghan (1827–1904), and the young ‘martyr’ was buried at the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.
The example of Collingridge and Watts-Russell led to an upsurge of enthusiasm in Britain and Ireland. There was a flood of recruits; all in all, around 120 Englishmen, 24 Scots and 180 Irish joined the Zouaves. Prominent lay Catholics, including several titled aristocrats, MPs and even a future Home Secretary, Henry Matthews (1826–1913), formed a Papal Defence Committee to cover the expenses of travel to Rome and life as a Zouave. Collections were made in parishes: SS Peter and Paul, Ribchester, in the diocese of Salford, for example, gifted ‘three breech-loaders for His Holiness’ in November 1867.[1]
The Zouaves came from many different backgrounds. There were a handful of representatives of long-established Catholic families, such as Petre, Vavasour and Maxwell, but the majority were from the middle classes. Most were in their late teens or twenties, though there were several mature recruits, including one Jacob Hinde, later Lloyd (1816–87), a former Church of England clergyman and one of the few Welsh Zouaves, who joined aged 52.
Life as a Zouave was not particularly easy. Rations and pay were often considered meagre and there were obvious linguistic problems, with French being the common language of the unit. Nevertheless, the English Zouaves managed to form an identity of their own. They were ministered to by their own chaplains, including Mgr Edmund Stonor (1831–1912), a son of Lord Camoys. They had a club or cercle, first situated near the church of Sant’ Antonio dei Portoghesi and then at 91 Piazza della Valle, where Zouaves could relax, enjoy a good meal, play billiards, read the latest newspapers and journalists, and rent a room for the night. Cricket matches were another popular distraction: in March 1868 there was a match between ‘All England in Rome’ and ‘All English Zouaves’ near the Villa Borghese: there, the leading light of the Zouave Eleven was Frederick Tristam Welman (1849–1931), who went on to play as wicket keeper for Middlesex, Somerset and Surrey.
The English College was another important centre for the English Zouaves. Some of them had family and school links with the seminarians. Joseph Powell, in a memoir of his time as a Pontifical Zouave, writes of attending Vespers and Benediction at the College ‘which are there sung as in England’[2] and twice making the excursion to the College villa at Monte Porzio, where ‘the English College received us as usual most kindly’.[3] Another Zouave reported in March 1868 that
the rector of the English College took some of us out for a day’s fun, and didn’t we enjoy ourselves? What a jolly dinner we had. We tasted good English beef again, and we did eat it with a relish. It isn’t bad getting those invitations, is it? There is only one fault I can find, and that is that they are too much like angels’ visits, very few, and far between.[4]
At Pentecost 1868, an informal ceremony was held at the College attended by the English, Scottish, Irish and Canadian volunteers in the papal army. A mother of two of the Zouaves, the Honourable Mrs Kavanagh, had produced two banners which were duly presented, one of which, made of waterproof silk, was designed to be carried into battle. Just over a year later, Wilfrid Watts-Russell (c.1846–79), himself a Pontifical Zouave, was awarded the Mentana Medal by Pope PIus IX, in recognition for his service in the battle and also in memory of his late brother, Julian.[5]
An unidentified photograph of circa 1868 in the Venerable English College Archives, believed to be of Wilfrid Watts-Russell (c.1846–79), wearing the Mentana Medal
Above and below: the two sides of the Mentana Medal awarded by Pius IX in 1868
The Zouaves took a prominent part in the defence of Rome on 20 September 1870, being forced to capitulate to the Italians since their orders had been to show resistance until the walls were breached. The pope was anxious to uphold his prerogatives, but also to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
Although now largely forgotten, the English Zouaves inspired a generation and many veterans lived on, telling their stories, into the 1930s. In 1894, there was renewed interest in Julian Watts-Russell: a student at the Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica, Claude Reginald Lindsay, ‘rescued’ the monument that had been placed near the spot where the young Zouave fell and brought to the English College chapel for safekeeping. In the aftermath of 1870 it had been vandalised and then stored in the cellar of an osteria. The Tablet thought it fitting that ‘the last of the English martyrs will be vividly commemorated in the Church which is par excellence the Roman shrine of the martyrs of England’.[6] Julian’s body was meanwhile transferred to a new grave, though there was disappointment that it was not discovered incorrupt.
With hindsight, the Pontifical Zouaves might be seen as heroic failures. Most of them knew that the odds were heavily stacked against them, but they also knew the importance of standing up for their beliefs and the value, as they saw it, of sacrifice and martyrdom. Moreover, the English members of the Zouaves were keen to show that Catholic England could stand alongside continental neighbours in defending the visible head of the Church. English Catholics, after years of persecution, had surely come of age.
[1] The Tablet, 30 November 1867, p. 765.
[2] Joseph Powell, Two Years in the Pontifical Zouaves: a narrative of travel, residence and experience in the Roman states (London, 1871), p. 49.
[3] Ibid., p. 69.
[4] The Tablet, 28 March 1868, p. 203.
[5] The Tablet, 23 October 1869, p. 666.
[6] The Tablet, 3 March 1894, p. 335.
The author of this blog is working on a book on this subject, to be published by Helion in early 2022.