Richard Church

Richard Church                                                                      ΡΙΤΣΑΡΝΤ ΤΣΩΡΤΣ

  

 Born 1784                                                                                    Died March 1873 

                                                                        

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Richard church was perhaps the greatest Philhellene of them all. As a young lad he visited Greece and liked what he saw. He wrote home: “The Greeks, who are slaves to the Turks and are Christians, are ... a brave, honest, open generous people.”  In spite of many setbacks and disappointments, he remained faithful to Greece and the cause of Greek independence for his entire life.

 As a young man

 

His Life

Church was born into a Quaker family in Ireland. He bought a commission in the British army, fought in Egypt and elsewhere in the Mediterranean and, in the summer of 1809, sailed with the British expedition to wrest the Ionian Islands from the French.  After the successful capture of Zakynthos, Church formed a Greek regiment of light infantry (The Duke of York’s Greek Light Infantry). This would include many rough and tough klephts and armatoli from the Peloponnese and mainland Greece, men who would have found regular pay something of a welcome novelty and men, many of whom would afterwards number among the famous Greek freedom fighters during the War of Independence. Theodoros Kolokotronis was one of these men and the two would remain friends.

 In 1812, Church went to London seeking permission to raise a second Greek regiment and, although he was given sanction to do so, he did not win the massive support he had hoped for. He firmly believed that he could raise a huge army of Greeks given the opportunity. Church and his regiment went on to capture Paxos and the town of Parga on the mainland. At Naples he assisted in the negotiations for the surrender of Corfu to the British.

Church argued unsuccessfully behind the scenes at the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) for an independent, sovereign Greek state.  He believed that the Ionian Islands should stay a British Protectorate, believing that this as the best way forward for the Greeks. He argued that the Greeks were already in control of 500 ships at this point, able to contribute to their own freedom, and that a free Greece under British influence would further British ambitions in the Levant while at the same time prevent Russia from assuming too much power there.

 But in 1814-5, Britain was not that anti-Ottoman; it had other European fish to fry. It did keep the Ionians, but as a virtual crown colony rather than as a protectorate and they offended Church’s and Greek sensibilities by selling Parga to Ali Pasha of Ioannina. (1)

An Interlude

 Church left Greece to continue a military career in Europe but, when the War of Independence broke out in 1821, he wanted to be involved. Kolokotronis had written to him:  Come, Come, and take arms for Greece: or assist her with your talents, your virtues, and your abilities… He was, however, leery of the civil war among Greek leaders. Nonetheless, in 1827, after the Turks had taken all of Athens back except the Acropolis and all seemed lost, the Greek government invited Church to assume command and he accepted.

                                                             The Return

 Church returned to Greece in March 9 1827 after an absence of 12 years much to the delight of his Greek comrades in arms. Kolokotronis, no stranger to a good turn of phrase, announced, “Our father is at last come! We have only to obey him and our liberty is assured!”  On Easter Sunday, 15 April 1827, Church took his oath of office as Commander in Chief of the Greek Forces.

 

Alas, victory was not that easy. One of Church’s first actions was a disastrous attempt defeat the Turkish force besieging the Greek garrison on the Acropolis in Athens. The Greeks were routed with 700 dead, including 22 Philhellenes Happily the Naval Battle of Navarino on the west coast of the Peloponnese abruptly ended the worst of the fighting on October 20, 1827. It was the last great sea battle of the age of sail and the Turkish navy was utterly destroyed.  Church called Navarino a signal interposition of Divine Providence.” The British government called it ‘an untoward incident’ (The ‘allies’, who were still trying to work out what solution best served their own aims, were not quick to impose terms on the Ottomans after Navarino.  The situation and outcome would remain fluid for some time.)

 Ioannis Kapodistrias arrived in Greece as Governor in 1828, and annoyed Church by failing to deliver more troops and a flotilla. They did not like each other. But Church soldiered on, attempting to gain ground in Thessaly and Epiros while, at the same time, a virtual a civil war raged between the pro Kapodistrian faction and those who found him self-serving and autocratic. Church thought Thessaly and Epirus should be part of the new nation; Kapodistrias had already decided the new state would not include these areas. Finally, in June 1829, a frustrated Church informed Kapodistrias he could no longer serve under him and left Greece.

The Second Return

After Capodistrias was assassinated in 1831, Prince Otto of Bavaria was chosen to be the Greek monarch. Church then returned to Greece and became a Greek citizen in 1834. His title of general was restored and in 1836 he was named Inspector-General of the army.  King Otto (now Othon) proved to be resistant to a constitution and Church played a conspicuous role in the famous coup d’état of September 1843. A paper bearing demands for reform was carried to the palace by Church and two other rebel leaders, giving the king a choice of conceding reforms or abdicating.  Othon did agree to a constitution but took his revenge by dismissing Church as Inspector-General. However, at the outbreak of the Crimean war (1853), he had to forget his grievance and made him a general once more.

  During his long life, Church spent a good deal of his fortune supporting the Greek cause. For him it was a Crusade with religious overtones – he was saving Greece from the infidels.

 Church the soldier and statesman

When he died on 27 March 1873 he was honoured with a state funeral.  The Greek Ambassador to London, Ioannis Gennadios, eulogized Church as “the truest Hellene”. He is buried in a place of honour in front of the Agios Lazarus Church. 

His marble portrait is a very good likeness.

On the base are two crossed cannons (a common motif on the graves of the fighters during the Greek revolution), what looks like a lit bomb, a pile of cannon balls, standards on spears and, somewhat oddly, pick axes. The epitaph is in English:

Richard Church, General who has given himself and all he had to rescue a Christian race from oppression and to make Greece a nation, lived for her service and died amongst her people. Rest here in peace and faith.

On the back, the epitaph is repeated in Greek.

His grave is in section 2, number 28

Footnote

(1) The great powers were always more interested in achieving what they liked to call ‘a balance of power’ in the region (which meant a balance in which their country benefitted at the expense of the others) than in the fate of Greece. One historian, commenting on the Balkan Wars which happened years later said that in the case of Greece and the Balkans, no decision was ever made on principle…