My maternal grandfather (Jack Cole) was born in 1878 in Guingamp, Brittany. His family, originally from South Molton in Devon, were in the leather trade and had moved from Devon to Brittany to open a tannery. At the age of 16 my grandfather was sent to Jersey as an apprentice to the shoe trade. He eventually married Gertrude Orviss, one of two daughters of J.W. Orviss who had started a successful grocery business in St Helier. This business was originally known as the Beresford Street Stores but as it opened a butchers shop, a fishmongers and a confectionary store it became known, simply, as J.W.Orviss Ltd. Their early married life was lived in some comfort and style at Grosvenor Lodge, a fine house in St. Helier where my mother and her two sisters were born. My mother and father married in 1932 and my mother moved to England leaving her mother, father, two sisters and a niece living in Jersey. Shortly after the war started the Jersey family moved to a modest house at Fauvic on the East coast of the island. So it was that when the war broke out in 1939 the families were separated.
After the occupation of Jersey by the Germans in 1940 communication with the family in Jersey was limited to occasional 20 word messages using the Red Cross Mail Service. People tend to forget that even though the Normandy landings took place in June 1944 it was not until May 1945 that Jersey was liberated. Against that background you should read this letter written by my grandfather to my mother in the days immediately after Liberation which (despite English being his second language) gives a vivid account of life under German occupation.
Sunday May 27th 1945. Ambleside, Fauvic, Jersey.
My dear Inez,
We were very pleased to receive your letter this morning and as we never receive letters on Sundays we were quite surprised when the postman arrived. There is so much to say that I don’t really know where to start so I had better start at the very beginning as far back as 1940. It seems ages ago. First of all let me put your mind at rest concerning us. Apart from the first and only air raid Jersey was the safest place in Europe this has been admitted several times and we do not deserve any kudos. Once the Germans were established here we never feared bombs etc as we well knew that England would not send planes to hurt us and neither would the Germans who were all over the place have sent any hostiles to hurt their own people, so we did not worry about that, but we worried a good deal about you all when we heard of raids over London and over all England and you must indeed have had a much harder and anxious time also much more uncomfortable than us here and it is you who deserve a VC for going through this terrible war always in danger and sleeping in cellars for months on end. We thought of you always and while we could go comfortably to bed at nights and sleep all night you were always in danger and we worried a great deal about that and relief was great when we had your first letter telling us you were alright. Thank God that is over so don’t pity us any longer. We had our worries but not as great as yours and when in Town on Friday I saw some photos of different towns in England including Southampton, Coventry, London and Newcastle and many others exhibited in Burton’s very large premises where the Germans also had propaganda leaflets and books etc at one time. When I saw these photos I knew that life in England must have been terrible and our sympathies go out to them in their dreadful trial. What we have gone through is nothing compared with what these poor people living in bombed areas must have gone through and I think you must all be very brave.
When we moved into this house in 1940 in the month of May we never thought of all this. At the time they thought of defending the island and extra troops were drafted here. They (were) suddenly taken away during the night and we heard that Jersey had been declared an open town. We thought we were safe but not quite as the Germans were overrunning Normandy and France everywhere. We could hear the guns all day long and one day we heard planes. We rushed out and hardly had we reached the end of the garden when we heard a hissing noise from one plane quite close to here and then a tremendous thump - good gracious - they are bombing us. We all bundled back indoors and crouched on the floor in the kitchen and for a time we heard no more. They had gone over the Town and we could hear muffled noise but did not know what was happening. The potato season was in full swing and there were any amount of lorries on the pier with their loads, people taking a stroll on the pier. All these were machine-gunned and all the lorries. Bombs were dropping on the houses there and people were taken by surprise never expecting this and many were killed. They came back over this way. We could hear the machine-guns going as they went off back to France. The first bomb dropped on the slipway at La Roque Harbour and several people were killed on their doorstep as they came to see what was going on. The roofs of several houses windows etc were smashed. The next day all the houses were told to put up white flags as the Germans were coming to take the island.
The Bailiff and others were told to be at the airport to receive the German General and so that was the first and only air raid thank goodness. After that the place was alive with planes and Germans all over the place. Proclamation after proclamation were posted up everywhere threatening people with the death penalty for nearly everything. It was not very pleasant. They soon took charge of everything and from then it was a gradual tightening of our liberties. Two persons were allowed to talk on the pavement together but not three or they wanted to know what you were talking about. Then they started taking our cars, then wirelesses were forbidden excepting German stations then they took them away altogether. Then some bicycles had to go as well. Curfew at 10 o’clock. Blackout very severe. After a time nobody worried about the numerous orders appearing in the papers. You were not allowed to cycle two abreast on the roads only in single file. After a while nobody took any notice of all these silly orders. Well, this went on gradually getting worse as the Germans knew they would lose. While the Germans were in Normandy there was always a certain amount of food coming from France. The States of Jersey sent representatives to live in St Malo to buy whatever they could find and we had rations of red wine sometimes or Camembert cheese. Clothing not in great quantities. We had French tobacco until North Africa was invaded then it stopped and we had to depend on our own crops. One year there were rumours of peace and we were greatly elated. This came to nothing and we were disappointed. Then came D. Day. We could again hear the guns which shook our doors and windows but this time they were English and American guns.
After a while they took Cherbourg and neighbouring places. We used to go up into the loft and watch the fires and puffs of smoke quite plainly. Some days the rattle of artillery and bombs shook the house and the doors and windows rattled. What it must have been like at close quarters I dare not think. It was bad enough with it 15 or 20 miles away. Then rumours again were rife and people said that the Americans would be here in 10 days and so it went on nothing happened and we thought we would be free by last Christmas but were greatly disappointed when everything was quiet again. We were then afraid that the Germans would fight. All sorts of rumours went round. We were afraid that a fight would mean the end of Jersey. The place is so small and was well fortified that it would have meant a terrible loss of life for us too. However, after long anxious weeks they gave up fortunately and here we are again with the smiling British Tommies instead of the hated Germans whom we ignored. Well you know all that has happened since and we again enjoy freedom and freedom of speech.
Our greatest fear was deportation. At first the least thing meant being sent to Germany where they decided to send the English residents away we also had our turn. One evening there was a knock at the door. The Constable and several others and a German soldier were there. The German soldier asked me if I was Mr. Cole and then handed me a paper telling me to be ready to embark the next day at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Short notice, but I said I was not born in England. So he said if you have any papers take them to the Commandant at College House tomorrow morning . I could not sleep that night and we were all packing a suitcase each, not more, also a blanket and not more than 10 Marks (?) money. Doris and I went to College House next morning and I told the Commandant that I was born in France and had been all my life in Jersey. The officers had a talk together in German and then he said to me but your name is an English name. Oh I said there are many people in Jersey with English names. Then another confab together and suddenly he said alright – accepted and I was free.
We quickly went to Ethel Le Contun (sp?) next door to Grosvenor Lodge and telephoned the good news to mother here. It was a relief and then that afternoon we saw the poor unlucky ones leave in a special bus from Grouville and we might have been there too had I not been born in France or Jersey. Mother was not too well then and it was very worrying. We had a doctor’s certificate which we would have produced at the last minute but this was not necessary. It all seems like a bad dream now. We had privations certainly but not as you might imagine. I am now writing about us personally. I know there have been people who lived in Town where they could not get anything but the meagre rations doled out but as far as we were concerned here we were never hungry. We lacked luxuries and meat was not to be had very often but we produced food and our loft was always well stored with the fruits of our labour. Dried beans, apples, potatoes, wheat, which we had to hide bought at £8 per hundredweight – this was cheap, some had to pay £12. The Germans raided many houses for wheat. We used to help each other too - it is really marvellous how people used to manage and now there is food in the shops again and we have plenty. The rations are fine and tomorrow we are having 100 cigarettes and 4 oz of tobacco as well per person.
You said you had a parcel of food for us from South Africa but really we do not require it so if you can make use of it yourself. It is most kind of them to send it and is greatly appreciate it but it seems you are short of food too and if it would be useful to you have it.
The Red Cross parcels here are a blessing and now food is pouring in. I do not know if I have told you enough to explain the situation. There is so much in the years that I have forgotten lots of things I expect, however I shall write again shortly.
I am sorry Jack is so tired. I wish he could come over here but I am afraid they won’t allow travelling for some time.
We are longing to see you all and would like you to come over when you can. I had your wire but could not reply by telephone as the cable is not repaired and letter is just as quick that day. I could not get near the Post Office the queue was outside on the pavement. Much love to you all – we are very well and hope you are the same.
Daddy.
Footnote.
There is a reference in this letter to my grandmother being unwell. Sadly, she did not survive the war and I was never to know her.
My mother’s elder sister also wrote about life during the Occupation. Her accounts of having to bring all their livestock into the kitchen at night to protect them from German soldiers and escaped Russian slave labourers are riveting and I hope to make that the focus of a talk for the HCHG in the future.