Philippe de Rullecourt

Colonel Philipe Charles Félix Macquart, Baron de Rullecourt (9 July 1744 – 7 January 1781) was a French Royal Army officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. In 1781, he was mortally wounded commanding the attempted invasion of Jersey at the Battle of Jersey.

Philipe de Rullecort
Philipe, Baron de Rullecort
Born	(1744-07-09)9 July 1744
Died	7 January 1781(1781-01-07) (aged 36) Jersey
Allegiance	France
Branch	French Royal Army
Rank	Colonel
Battles / wars	Invasion of Jersey (1779) Battle of Jersey

Memorial stone of Baron de Rullecourt in Saint Helier Parish churchyard where the Baron was buried

Biography

Philipe Charles Félix Macquart was born in Artois in a wealthy family originating in Orléans, although his title "Baron de Rullecourt" was self-bestowed. He was working as a soldier for hire, when he was placed in command of French Royal Army troops during the failed French invasion of Jersey in 1779, as second-in-command to Karl Heinrich von Nassau-Siegen.

Two years later, he launched another invasion attempt on Jersey. Rullecourt's second-in-command Mir Sayyad advised him to ransack the island and to kill all its civilians, but instead he captured the island's governor Moses Corbet, and used him as a tool to try and engineer a British surrender. But the British troops on the island refused to surrender, and Rullecourt was mortally wounded in the following battle in which the British outnumbered the French. Rullecourt died a day later of his wounds, in the modern-day Peirson Pub. He had failed in his attempt to bluff the British into surrender.

References

http://www.guernsey-society.org.uk/donkipedia/index.php5?title=Baron_de_Rullecourt