The 1940 lighthouse fire on Combe Island killed three German visitors and was concealed as an accident. Recounted decades later through Emily Holcombe’s account of Saul Oliver’s confession, the event remains shadowed by uncertainty over who started the blaze—and by the deliberate concealment of the deaths that followed.

Evacuation and the Germans’ Arrival

When war began, Combe Island was evacuated because there was not enough fuel for its launch. Emily Holcombe’s family remained through the Phoney War, but in October 1940, after the fall of France and her brother’s death at Dunkirk, her parents decided to leave. On 10 October, after taking the remaining staff to the mainland, Saul Oliver and his son returned to the island in Saul’s sailing boat. Saul said he had final tasks to complete and was concerned that the house was not secure.

During that night, three Germans from the occupied Channel Islands landed on Combe. Their purpose was uncertain: they may have been conducting reconnaissance or pursuing a private enterprise. Raimund Speidel later suggested that they might have intended to plant a German flag atop the disused lighthouse. After first light, the men climbed the tower, apparently to survey the area.

The Fire and Its Concealment

The lighthouse’s ground floor was being used to store animal fodder and was packed with dry straw. In Saul’s account, he found the Germans’ boat and worked out where they had gone. He then set the straw alight. Smoke and flames rose into the tower, trapping the men: they could not escape onto the lantern because its railings had become unsafe, and the door had long been nailed shut to prevent accidents. All three died, probably by suffocation.

After the fire burned out, Saul found the bodies halfway up the tower and carried them back to the Germans’ boat. He took the boat out with the dinghy from his sailing boat and sank it in deep water. The deaths were thus hidden along with the visitors’ means of arrival. According to Emily, no inquiries followed the war; the young men were probably listed as missing, presumed drowned.

Conflicting Accounts and Belated Confirmation

Emily’s knowledge came from Saul, who told her the story when he was barely coherent and within two weeks of his death. She could not tell whether he meant to confess or boast, and believed she had received only as much of the truth as he was willing to disclose. The account was supported by objects he had kept—a revolver, binoculars and a compass—but for years those souvenirs were the only evidence beyond his words.

Saul’s account also shifted the question of responsibility. He later told Emily that it was the boy, Nathan Oliver, who had lit the straw while playing with matches found in the house. Nathan panicked and denied having been near the lighthouse. Emily believed Saul at the time, but later became unsure whether his claim was true. Raimund Speidel’s arrival on Combe Island, decades after the fire, provided the first confirmation of the story beyond Saul’s souvenirs. The delayed disclosure makes the fire more than a concealed wartime death: it leaves Nathan’s childhood act—or Saul’s version of it—unresolved, and brings the island’s buried history into the present.