First recorded as a small
fishing settlement in 1030, Dieppe was an important prize fought over during the
Hundred Years' War.
Colonial Activity It housed
the most advanced French school of cartography in the 16th century. Two of France's best navigators, Michel le Vasseur and his brother Thomas le Vasseur, lived in Dieppe when they were recruited to join the expedition of
René Goulaine de Laudonnière which departed
Le Havre for
Florida on April 20, 1564. The expedition resulted in the construction of
Fort Caroline, the first French colony in the New World. At the same time, merchants of Dieppe were beginning to frequent the ports of
Senegambia. Another expedition two years before, in which Goulaine de Laudonnière was under the command of
Jean Ribault, a local Huguenot captain, had resulted in the foundation of
Charlesfort, now in South Carolina. Dieppe was the premier port of the kingdom in the 17th century. On 23 July 1632, 300
colonists heading to
New France departed from Dieppe. At the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Dieppe lost 3,000 of its
Huguenot citizens, who fled abroad. In 1633 the merchants of Dieppe and
Rouen were granted a monopoly on trade between the
Senegal and
Gambia rivers by
Cardinal Richelieu.
Norman French was spoken as a
trade language in ports of modern-day
Senegal such as
Rufisque in the late 17th century. In 1637 Captain Thomas Lambert sailed from Dieppe for the
Compagnie du Cap-Vert et du Sénégal, and established a trading post at the mouth of the Senegal that would eventually become
Saint-Louis.
Port and Resort John Knox briefly stayed in Dieppe after
Mary I outlawed
Protestantism in England, on his way to
Geneva to meet
John Calvin. Dieppe was an important target in
wartime; the town was largely destroyed by an
Anglo-
Dutch naval bombardment in 1694. It was rebuilt after 1696 in a typical French classical style by Ventabren, an architect, who gave it its unique feature for a sea port. It was popularised as a
seaside resort following the 1824 visit of the widowed
Duchess of Berry, daughter-in-law of
Charles X. She encouraged the building of the recently renovated municipal
theatre, the
Petit-Théâtre (1825), associated particularly with
Camille Saint-Saëns. The city enjoyed
Mayoral status at this point and in 1787, the
"Maire de Dieppe" was N. Nile. During the later 19th century, Dieppe became popular with English artists as a
beach resort. Prominent literary figures such as
Arthur Symons loved to keep up with the latest fads of
avant-garde France here, and during "the season" sometimes stayed for weeks on end.
Second World War During the
Second World War Dieppe was occupied by German naval and army forces after the
fall of France in 1940. In order to allow a better defence of the coast against a possible
Allied landing, the Germans destroyed the mauresque casino that was located near the beach area. The destruction of the casino had only begun at the time of the
Dieppe Raid. The raid proved a costly lesson for the Allies. On 19 August 1942, Allied soldiers, mainly drawn from the
2nd Canadian Infantry Division, landed at Dieppe in the hope of occupying the town for a short time, gaining intelligence and drawing the
Luftwaffe into open battle. The Allies suffered more than 1,400 deaths, 907 Canadian, and 1,946 Canadian soldiers were captured – more prisoners than the army lost in the 11 months of the
1944–45 NW Europe campaign. However, no major objectives were achieved. More recent research suggests the raid was a massive cover for an intelligence operation to capture German code machine components. French soldiers from the region, captured in the fighting of 1940, were returned to the area after the Dieppe Raid as a reward by the German occupation authorities, who felt that the conduct of the French civilians in Dieppe had been correct and had not hindered the defence of the port during the battle. The port remained garrisoned by German forces until the conclusion of the
Battle of Normandy. When the
First Canadian Army approached at the end of August, the garrison withdrew, not desiring to enter into battle for the port.
Dieppe was liberated on 1 September 1944, by soldiers from the
2nd Canadian Infantry Division. On 3 September, the entire division paused for reorganization, and a victory parade was held; contingents representing all major units of the 2nd Division marched 10 abreast behind the massed pipes and drums of the division's highland regiments. A memorial service was held in the nearby Canadian military cemetery to honour those killed in the Dieppe Raid.
Post-war Starting on 10 June and ending on 11 June 1945, a soldier named Abd el Maleck, armed with a pistol, slew 15 people and wounded 9 others after getting drunk. He was captured on 11 June after being wounded. Maleck was court-martialed for murder and sentenced to death on 22 September 1945. He was executed by firing squad on 14 February 1946.
Dieppe, a city in
New Brunswick, Canada, received its present name in 1946, in honour of the commemoration of the 913 Canadian soldiers killed in the Dieppe Raid. The majority of its inhabitants are of
Acadian descent. The
Hôtel de Ville was completed in 1966. ) ==Geography==