GUERNSEY HISTORY AND TRIVIA

• Guernsey Island is the second largest of the Channel Islands; it is also the western-most. It lies a mere 30 miles from France, and 125 miles south of England.
• Guernsey is the site of the Les Fouillages burial mound, possibly the oldest man-made structure in Europe.
• Geology indicates that the Channel Islands were once part of France’s mainland. Rising sea levels created these islands around 6000 B.C.
• The Bailiwick of Guernsey (comprised of the Island of Guernsey as well as Sark, Alderney, Herm and other islets) is not part of the United Kingdom, but a possession of the Crown, comparable to the Island of Man, and not part of the European Union.
• In 933 A.D. Guernsey became a possession of the Duchy of Normandy; when William the Conqueror’s took Britain’s crown in 1066, the Channel Islands were already part of his oversight. The name for the Islands’ overlord is The Duke of Normandy and this is the title given to Elizabeth II today.
• On June 15, 1940, in the midst of World War II, the British Government declared that the Channel Islands were of no strategic importance and would not be defended militarily. However, elected island officials were consulted on a plan to evacuate the islands. True to their iconoclastic heritage, each of the four islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark) chose a different strategy. Guernsey elected to evacuate all children of school age but gave the parents the option of keeping the children with them on the island, or allowing them to evacuate with their class.
• German reconnaissance planes saw a convoy of lorries in St. Peters Port (the capital of Guernsey) and mistook them for troop carriers; the subsequent bombing killed 41 civilians. In truth, the convoy was carrying tomatoes to the ships attempting to bring produce to Britain.
• The German forces landed on Guernsey on June 30, 1940 (the other Channel Islands followed over the next few days) and remained—heavily reinforcing the islands well beyond their strategic value—until May 9, 1945, still celebrated today as Liberation Day.
• On June 15, 1940, the British Government declared that the Channel Islands were of no strategic importance and would not be defended. However, elected island officials were consulted on a plan to evacuate the islands. True to their iconoclastic heritage, each of the four islands (Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark) chose a different strategy. Guernsey elected to evacuate all children of school age but gave the parents the option of keeping the children with them on the island, or allowing them to evacuate with their class.
• Victor Hugo wrote many of his novels while exiled to Guernsey, including Les Miserables. He lived in Hautville House which has since become the French Embassy; his novel, Toilers of the Sea, was set on and dedicated to the island.
• There are two national animals of Guernsey: the Guernsey cow and the donkey. While the former’s position is self-evident, the latter was important due to the steepness of the ways in and out of St. Peters Port. It has also been said that the donkey was also tribute to Guernsey inhabitant’s stubbornness.
• During the English Civil War, Guernsey sided with Parliament while neighboring Jersey was Royalist. However, the Royalist-tending Governor of the Island, Sir Peter Osbourne, took possession of Castle Coronet and bombarded St. Peters Port regularly. When he capitulated in 1651, Osbourne was the last Royalist to do so.
• The official language of Guernsey is English, but French influence is clear in the several local dialects including Guernésiais (aka Guernsey Norman French).
• Potato Peel Pie is not a delicacy of Guernsey, but should you visit you may enjoy a Guernsey Gache which is a bread laced with raisins, sultanas, and mixed dried peels … of fruit, not potato.
• Renior painted on Guernsey; some of his paintings were used in a set of commemorative stamps issued in 1983.
• In more recent years, Guernsey and other Channel Islands have become popular havens for people seeking tax relief; its largest industry is finance.
• Guernsey’s colorful recent history includes:
  • The Island’s official color is Green—sports jerseys, etc.
  • The Island hosts the same distinctive post-boxes and phone-booths one sees in England…but Guernsey’s are not painted red (like Royal Mail boxes) but a cobalt blue.
  • A new flag was instituted in 1985; it incorporates the badge of William of Normandy (aka the Conqueror of 1066) as show in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, touting the island’s French-British heritage.
• Did you know this person lived in Guernsey?
  • Victor Hugo (mentioned above)
  • Roy Dotrice—actor (best known for “Beauty and the Beast,” “Picket Fences” and the reader of 3 of the Audio-book adaptations of George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire Saga)
  • William La Lacheur—considered the “father” of the coffee import business bringing the great bean from Costa Rica to the UK.
  • Oliver Reed—actor, who although born in Wimbledon, lived in great part in Guernsey due to some difficulty with the tax officials.
  • Andrew (Andy) Graham Priaulx – current World Touring Car Championship Champion, a crown he has held since 2004.
  • Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine—Academy-award winning actresses descended from a 15th century family of Guernsey natives.