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LIBERATION

- EYEWITNESS -

LIBERATION

EYEWITNESS

As the years pass, the testimony of those who were there on Liberation Day assumes a new significance. In 1995, to mark the 50th anniversary of Liberation, ITV Channel Television reporter Eric Blakeley set out to record memories of dozens of Channel Islanders who had lived through the German Occupation. Clips of these interviews were seen at the time but they have never been screened in their entirety. Until now. 

 

Channel Television’s extensive film archive, dating back to the station’s first broadcasts in 1962, is now in the care of the Jersey Archive. So, we are able to see and hear those who bear witness to events on Wednesday 9th May 1945 – the day they thought would never come. 

 

They include photographer Bob Lawrence, Dixie Landick (who filmed the day), young men who had been imprisoned such as Charles Gruchy and Joe Mière, Jerseyman Major Hugh Le Brocq – who landed with the liberators – and Norman Le Brocq of the Jersey Communist Party who had spent the previous three weeks trying to persuade German troops to mutiny. They never did.

 

These are their stories.

Barbara Journeaux
02:40

Barbara Journeaux

Barbara Journeaux was a pupil at St Lawrence School, where her father was headmaster.
Harry Aubin
04:36

Harry Aubin

Harry Aubin’s parents ran a shop in St Saviour’s Road. He was later to become well-known as a teacher at Hautlieu School.
Stella Perkins
04:23

Stella Perkins

Stella Perkins, of the Jersey Democratic Movement, was later recognised by Russia for assisting slave workers during the German Occupation.
Norman Le Brocq
02:33

Norman Le Brocq

Norman Le Brocq was a founder member of the Jersey Democratic Movement and a member of the Communist Party. The JDM provided support for escaped slave workers. He was a long-time campaigner on social policy and was elected to the States of Jersey. He died in 1996.
Joe Mière
03:20

Joe Mière

Joe Mière was in Newgate Street Prison until the Liberation. In later life, he documented the story of the Occupation.
Nan Le Ruez
02:43

Nan Le Ruez

Nan Le Ruez was engaged to Methodist minister Alfred du Feu before the start of the Occupation; they were married after the war and moved to the UK. Alfred died in 1985. Nan Le Ruez’s book ‘Jersey Occupation Diary’ was published in 2004 and she was re-united with Sub-Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper, one of the first men ashore on Liberation Day, and with whom she had stopped to have a chat. When his wife died, he and Nan were married; she was 89, he was 82.
Charles Gruchy
02:24

Charles Gruchy

Charles Gruchy was serving a thirteenth-month sentence in Newgate Street Prison until days before the Liberation. In later life, he became the States Veterinary Surgeon and, in 1986, a Jurat of the Royal Court.
Bob Lawrence
03:50

Bob Lawrence

Robert ‘Bob’ Lawrence was a photographer whose shop ‘R H Lawrence’ was in Charing Cross.
Joan Jacklin
02:37

Joan Jacklin

Joan Jacklin was educated at FCJ Convent School, joined the civil service and later worked at the Social Security Department.
John Sherry
04:13

John Sherry

As a young man, John Sherry was given a job at the Town Hall in St Helier – and never left, rising to become a long-serving Parish Secretary. He was a well-known sportsman, particularly on the football field.
Bob Le Sueur
01:53

Bob Le Sueur

Bob Le Sueur, aged 19 in 1940, was an insurance clerk during the Occupation. He supported the sheltering of escaped slave workers. After the war, he taught English and French at Hautlieu School. He was made an MBE in 2013 and a Chevalier in the Ordre de la Pléiade in 2018.
Betty Bois
01:34

Betty Bois

Elizabeth Bois (née Pearce) worked in the Crown Officer’s Department during the Occupation. Her proximity to power gave her a special insight into the affairs of the Superior Council which ran the Island from day-to-day. In 1944, she married Francis de Lisle Bois, Assistant Law Draftsman and Greffier of the States and, later, Deputy-Bailiff.
Dixie Landick
04:29

Dixie Landick

Dixie Landick used his precious ciné film, stored in a tin throughout the Occupation, to record Liberation Day. After the war, he became a Control Officer with the British Army of Occupation in Germany (where he met his wife) and then a language teacher at Victoria College.
Lt. Commander Douglas Williams
03:23

Lt. Commander Douglas Williams

Lt. Commander Douglas Williams RN, was the Captain of HMS Beagle, the destroyer which brought the liberating troops to Jersey on 9th May 1945.
Major Hugh Le Brocq
09:03

Major Hugh Le Brocq

Jerseyman Major Hugh Le Brocq was with the Royal Militia Island of Jersey Hampshire Regiment in Newcastle when he was asked to report to Plymouth to become part of Task Force 135. It was decided that a number of the liberators should be Channel Islanders serving in the military.
John Coutanche
01:38

John Coutanche

The Honourable John Coutanche was the only son of Alexander Coutanche, Jersey’s Bailiff during the Occupation. He joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and became a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy Reserve in 1944. From 1975 he was a Jurat of the Royal Court and was made Lieutenant-bailiff in 1986.
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