Jack Rattenbury

Jack Rattenbury (c.1778–1844) was born in the small fishing village of Beer on the Devon coast and spent most of his life as a fisherman, pilot, privateer, and — most famously — a smuggler, earning him the local nickname 'the Rob Roy of the West' after the Scottish outlaw. Beer's sheltered cove and network of caves made it one of the most active smuggling villages on the south coast, and Rattenbury was at the centre of its illicit trade in brandy, tea, tobacco, and other contraband for decades, repeatedly evading capture by excise cutters and the Royal Navy.

Late in life, suffering from gout and largely retired from the trade — though, by his own account, not from the desire for it — the illiterate Rattenbury dictated his life story to a local clergyman. The result, published in 1837 as 'Memoirs of a Smuggler, Compiled from his Diary and Journal', is one of the few first-person accounts of the smuggling trade to survive from the period, describing narrow escapes, shipwrecks, brushes with press gangs, and a life lived constantly on the wrong side of the customs men.

Rattenbury's memoir has kept his name alive in Devon folklore ever since, and Beer continues to celebrate its smuggling heritage, with local tours and histories pointing out the caves and coves associated with his exploits.