22nd September 1817

Writer Philippe Langlois is born

Philippe Langlois was a qualified doctor and a medical officer in the Royal Jersey Militia. However, he’s remembered as an author and poet who wrote in Jèrriais, either as Un Luorenchair or, simply, PL. The moniker Luorenchair relates to the fact that he was born in the parish of St Lawrence.

Langlois came to prominence by a round-about route, which took him off island to study, first to Paris and then Dublin. Upon returning to Jersey he served as a deputy in the States and, in his late 50s, was elected a Jurat.

President of La Société Jersiaise

However, Jersey has best reason to remember him as vice president of La Société Jersiaise upon its formation and, between 1877 and 1881, its president. In that role, he started work on a Jèrriais dictionary, the Glossaire du Patois Jersiais, much like the Guernesiais equivalent compiled in Guernsey by Marie de Garis. Sadly, Langlois didn’t live long enough to see the work he had instigated made public. It went through several revisions and was added to many times over before being printed and published in 1924. By then Langlois had been dead 40 years; he had died on 19 June 1884.