Following in her father’s footsteps

Seychelles History

Following in her father’s footsteps

Victoria Howard’s good deeds recall controversial role of archdeacon Roach in Seychelles n the 1950s.
Contributed by William McAteer

Mrs Victoria Howard is well known in Seychelles for having set up with the help of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, a non-governmental organisation called Paster Lanwit. Known variously as Street or Night Pastors, members of Paster Lanwit visit selected areas of Victoria at night to offer a helping hand or friendly advice to anyone in need. Those who have worked with Victoria will have noted her determination, courage and commitment to Christian values, the same attributes that were the hallmark of her father, Archdeacon Charles Roach.

Known as a champion of the poor when vicar of Dulwich in south-east London, Charles Roach was appalled at the living conditions of the people of Seychelles when he arrived here in 1951.His views, which he expressed from the pulpit and in his monthly church magazine, caused such a stir in Seychelles and London that he was eventually banned from the then British colony.

At the time his daughter Victoria was not yet three, and was to have no recollection of Seychelles where she was born. “But as I got older I knew that my father was very saddened at being “expelled” from Seychelles,” she was to recall. “I think my mother felt humiliated. Just imagine, their Seychellois friends had to pack up their belongings for shipment to the UK.”

Speaking recently during a month’s visit to Seychelles to see how Paster Lanwit was progressing, Victoria said she had been absolutely exhausted when she got back home to Cornwall in July 2015. “For the final two and a half months of my stay I was going out every Saturday night with the teams in Victoria, making sure Paster Lanwit was up and running. It was mainly listening to people, many of them drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes. We assess their needs, helping them in whatever way we can. We work in teams of four and carry water, sweets, first-aid kits, even flip flops, and distribute these as needed. We are backed by ‘prayer pastors’ at our headquarters. We are not there as police, or evangelists, but we will call on the emergency services if needed.”

Victoria who was married twice, in 1979 and 1986, and subsequently divorced, is an occupational psychologist by profession. Although she was brought up in a family with a strong tradition in the Church of England she did not become a committed Christian until she was in her forties. By then she had two sons and had just lost a baby. “At times of personal crisis you turn to God, and that is what I did,” she says.Then, in 2014, with her sons grown up, she found herself free to take up voluntary work as an Anglican missionary. By chance an assignment to Seychelles came up, giving Victoria the chance to return to the country of her birth, where many of the older citizens remember her father and the controversy that surrounded him and the Governor of the then British Colony.

There was much in Seychelles that displeased her father in 1951, and he was not afraid to speak out, often unwisely. He described people living like rats in small houses where the only sanitary arrangement was the sea, and where most men worked all day on coconut plantations for about 40 rupees a month. But what particularly annoyed the Archdeacon was that the Governor did not seem to care.
Eventually Roach’s criticisms, which included allegations of financial irregularities in the administration of the Colony, reached Government House, where William Addis had succeeded as Governor in 1953.If Addis resented the Archdeacon’s criticisms so did members of the Taxpayers and Producers’ Association, which at the time was the nearest thing in Seychelles to a political party, and which had recently elected Dr Hilda Stevenson-Delhomme (invariably known as Mrs Delhomme) as its first woman president.

The Archdeacon believed that the Anglican community, which constituted about 10% of the population, required protection from Roman Catholic interference, particularly in regard to education. He was critical of what he regarded as Roman Catholic support for the planters, most of whom were of French origin, and whose neglectful attitude towards their mainly coloured labourers angered Roach. Inevitably, his criticism focussed on the likes of Mrs Delhomme who, as a result of her marriage to Frenchman André Delhomme, had become a considerable landowner.

If, as the Archdeacon was to claim, Mrs Delhomme described herself as the “First Lady of Mahé” she had every reason to do so. Not only was she a prominent planter she was also the Colony’s first practising female doctor, with a seat on the Executive and Legislative Councils. Although she was noted as a strict employer, who kept her labour costs down, she was always kind to the sick and the poor, and if socially she was a bit stuck up who could blame her? After all she had succeeded in a world where women were still not readily accepted.

However Archdeacon Roach was concerned at the apparent influence Mrs Delhomme had over the Governor. He attributed the Governor’s lack of interest in improving the low wages of the labouring classes and the absence of any social justice on the islands to Addis being “dominated” by Mrs Delhomme. He noted that when the Legislative Council debated a proposed rise in the minimum wage, Mrs Delhomme opposed it on the grounds that the labourers already spent too much money on drink. According to Roach, the other Unofficial Members would have approved a motion to raise wages but Addis, using his casting vote, “bowed to Mrs Delhomme’s wishes”.

Irritated by the Governor’s behaviour Roach complained to the Colonial Office. He chose the“very poor example” set by the Governor at a Ball held at Government House to mark the Queen’s Birthday.When Addis heard about this he confronted Roach, asking him what he meant. TheArchdeacon merely observed that Addis had been seen more often in the company of Mrs Delhomme than anyone else. Was he justified in saying so? According to the late Mr JusticeSauzier, who as Attorney-General knew, both Addis and Mrs Delhomme, the latter had “the ear and a little bit of the heart of the Governor”.

Although Roach had not suggested any impropriety by Mrs Delhomme, Addis chose in a letter to the Colonial Office to allege what he believed Roach was thinking. “What he wanted to say but did not dare,” declared Addis, “was ‘You were flaunting your mistress before your wife and guests’.” Addis added that his wife and himself and the Bonnetards (the Chief Justice and his wife) were close friends and “many are jealous of these friendships, and … spread libellous gossip concerning them”.

The reaction in the Colonial Office was generally sympathetic to Addis. One official described it as “a very sordid accusation”, and thought that Roach was unreliable and irresponsible. Another described the Archdeacon as a tactless fellow, but felt that the Governor had not been very discreet “in pressing the Archdeacon to put his dark thoughts into words.”Crucially however, the Colonial Office decided to report the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, a move that may have led to Roach’s ultimate undoing.

Such was the situation when Roach, his wife and two small daughters, Victoria and Connie, left Seychelles in January 1955 to go on leave. Despite his disagreements with the Governor, Roach was confident he would be back in Seychelles in August to resume running the archdeaconry. Bishop Hugh Otter-Barry had paid tribute to his hard work in Seychelles and the Governor and Mrs Addis had invited him and his family to spend a few days with them before their ship sailed. It must have seemed to Roach that Addis had forgiven him, but in fact the Archdeacon was leaving behind a smouldering resentment at Government House.

It was therefore a shock for him when in the middle of June, as the Archdeacon and his family were preparing to return to Seychelles, he received a letter from the Bishop informing him that Addis had requested that he should not return to the Colony. Otter-Barry explained that he could not ignore the Governor’s wishes as the Church was dependent on financial assistance from the Government. He expressed regret that the Governor had waited so long, almost until Roach was leaving England before making his request.

By preventing the Archdeacon from returning to Seychelles (and whoever it was who initiated the move is not clear), the result was that the decision gained maximum publicity. There were questions about Seychelles in the British Parliament, and Roach wrote a pamphlet, The Seychelles Story, highlighting all the wrongs in the Colony. While a government spokesman in the parliamentary debate attempted to claim that the Anglican community in Seychelles was divided on the matter, this was immediately contradicted by the Church Council which claimed that over 99% of adult Anglicans were opposed to Roach’s exclusion and that many Roman Catholics and other non-Anglicans were also upset by the Governor’s action. A petition sent to the Secretary of State declared that the Archdeacon was perfectly justified, that he had not exceeded his duty as a priest and citizen and that his exclusion from Seychelles was unjust.

Although the Anglican Church in its relations with the Colonial Officemay have been relieved that Roach remained in England, he was not under any sort of cloud and he took every opportunity to defend himself. Canon John Collins invited him to preach in St Paul’s about the situation in Seychelles, and he was appointed Vicar of St Saviour’s Church in Croydon. During the next few years Roach resumed his pastoral work in Croydon until 1962, when he was on the move again eventually becoming chaplain of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall.
Archdeacon Roach, who remained in Cornwall after his retirement, died in 2003 at the age of 94. He was described in a Daily Telegraph obituary as “a notably outspoken and turbulent priest”.Victoria, who visited Seychelles on holiday with her father in 1986, recalls that he visited Mrs Delhomme at that time and “I felt that they had made their peace”. Victoria’s sister, Connie, who had been diagnosed in the UK as mentally handicapped, died, aged 54, in 2005, and their mother, Mrs Mary Roach, died in 2006. Surviving members of the family areVictoria and a younger brother, Frank, who lives in Scotland where he indulges his passion for railways, running a hostel comprised of converted railway carriages.Victoria, who these past years has learnt more about her father’s time in Seychelles, considers it a tremendous privilege to have been able to return to Seychelles and work on the Paster Lanwit project with Anglican colleagues and Roman Catholics under Bishop Denis Wiehe.

Roach believed that the action taken against him had been prompted by his complaint to the Secretary of State about Roman Catholic interference in Anglican schools but this was not the general opinion, and if neither the Anglicans nor the Roman Catholics were behind his exclusion, the likeliest explanation is that the pressure on Addis to act as he did emanated from reactionary elements in Seychelles.
Although the truth will probably never be known, one thing is certain; Archdeacon Roach showed he had the courage to speak out against the living conditions of ordinary people, thereby breaking the barrier that had long constrained the clergy to turn a blind eye to the abuses around them.

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