I read an interesting article in , written in September 1985, by a former resident of Menton, Mrs. Evelyn Battye, Ascot, Berkshire, about .

Here is a brief except;

“I recently looked up an old photograph of St John’s in my home town of Menton, France. In the 1920’s and 30’s before Britain went off the Gold Standard and the franc plummeted, there were some six thousand British residents , known to the Mentonnais as, “les hivernants,” for their habit of disappearing during the hot months of the year.

On Sundays, St John’s was packed so much that an extension was built to the rear. There was a full choir, ably tutored by Mr. Pitman, who played the organ. The chaplain for many years was Mr. Greenstreet, his vicarage villa situated up the nearby Borrigo Valley. The pressure of work was such that he was aided by a curate, a different young man sent out from England every season. As the diocese of the Bishop of Gibraltar extended 3000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Caspian Sea, and north to south, 1000 miles across the Mediterranean, his visits to Menton were naturally infrequent, yet in time we children were all confirmed.

The most familiar figure at St John’s was that of the Italian verger, Monsieur Luigi, a white-haired, small moustached, stocky man whom I never saw without his long black cassock.

Although himself a devout Roman Catholic, Luigi, as he was known, worked faithfully at St John’s for 50 years until he retired aged 80. He served at the altar during Holy Communion, only leaving the sanctuary at the consecration. He neatly darned lace vestments , kept the church spotless and the small garden immaculate.

Luigi never learnt to speak English, but his memory was prodigious and when asked, could rattle off the names of the 14 sucessive chaplains he had served with deft gestures imitating each one’s little peculiarity.

Not many years ago I was in Menton again. I found St John’s in a sad state with damp patches on discoloured walls. A handful of English attended matins, kindly taken by an asthmatic wintering clergyman. The service was said and potted music played. The large, solid Victorian building, built in 1873 stands on a valuable site in the busy town.

Who owns these Continental churches and how much longer can they remain decaying memorials to the British?”

Well, 32 years after Mrs Battye’s piece in “Country Life,” St John’s is still standing. It has been closed for seven years, due to flooding caused by the tunneling of an underground car park for a new apartment block, which has been built behind St John’s. The garden has now disappeared,  so has the organ, but St John’s is in the process of renovation.

The extention Mrs Battye mentioned will be removed. There is still an active congregation, albeit much smaller than in the 1920’s or 30’s. Sunday service is held at the Chapel de St Roch; Hopefully, St John’s will reopen to new glory in the not too distant future.

Birgitt McDonagh-Nordbrink

Welcome to Menton, the pearl of the Riviera, with the best climate on the Cote d’Azur. Our micro climate is due to the to the backdrop of the Maritime Alps, which protect Menton from northern and western winds, offering  sunshine and blue skies for more than 300 days a year.

Frost is rare in Menton and occurs only every few years.

Citrus fruits grow here in abundance and for our internationally famous Lemon Festival, held every February, more than 200 tons of oranges and lemons are used to decorate festival floats and  the beautifully themed structures created in the Jardins Bioves. Each orange or lemon is protectively attached to a wire frame via an elastic band and when, after more than two weeks, the festival comes to an end, each fruit is detached and sold cheaply in order to make marmalade, juice and other citrus products.

Menton can look back on a pretty turbulent history. From 1346 until 1848, Menton belonged to Monaco, but after more than 500 years, Menton, together with its neighbour Roquebrune, decided to separate from Monaco. This was due, in part to a tax on lemon exports. Both Menton and Roquebrune were under the protectorate of the kingdom of Sardinia, administered by the House of Savoy.

1860 the Treaty of Turin came into being and a decision was made between the Kingdom of Sardinia and Napoleon III, stating Nice, Menton and Roquebrune, were to be annexed to France. This cost Napoleon III four million Francs, which were paid to Monaco, ensuring that the prince of Monaco would renounced his rights to Nice, Menton and Roquebrune.

European Royalty, politician Winston Churchill, writers, artists, sculptors and composersdescended on Menton over the years. Famous names such as Paganini, Rubinstein, Beardsley, Matisse, de Maupassant, Chekov, Nietzsche, Robert Louise Stevenson, W.B. Yeats, Samuel Beckett, Blasco-Ibanez, Katherine Mansfield, to name but a few, came to live in Mentone. (Writtenthe Italian way with an e in former times.)

In a letter to his mother, Robert Louise Stevenson said, “Mentone is one of the most beautiful places in the world and has always had a warm corner in my heart, since I first knew it eleven years ago.”  

Queen Victoria visited Mentone in 1882 with her daughter, Princess Beatrice and Scottish servant, John Brown. She stayed at the villa “Chalet des Rosiers,” owned by railway magnate, Charles Henfrey. In her diary, on the eve of her departure, Queen Victoria wrote, “I am sad to leave beloved and beautiful Mentone.”  The Chalet des Rosiers today has been converted to six apartments.

William Webb Ellis, inventor of the game of rugby, was laid to rest in the “Vieux Chateau Cemetery,” which overlooks Menton and has spectacular views.  Many famous people are buried here, including Russian Prince Felix Yussupov, who had a prominent part in the death of Rasputin.

Birgitt Nordbrink

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