The calm before the storm

The Delacour collection of living birds from all over the world was destroyed in the German spring advance, which began on 21 March, only a few days after Collingwood’s visit. Jean Delacour, a lieutenant in the French army, visited the house on the 25 March as the first shells were falling. He was only 28 years old, but had assembled the collection himself, starting before he was 10. In his autobiography, Delacour wrote: ‘I learnt that the number of shells that Villers received varied between 3,000 and 30,000 daily. Naturally all my birds were killed and plants destroyed and all the buildings wrecked.’ After the War, Delacour began a second collection of birds, which was also destroyed, this time by fire in 1939. In 1940 Delacour fled to America, where he began a new collection (subsequently left to the state) and became a major figure in ornithological research. Curiously, Collingwood met Jean Delacour by chance in Japan in 1926.