World War I/ Preunmié Dgèrre Mondiale by

WW1 - Jersey Archive School Visit

JHEducation — 2023-08-31 15:27:41 UTC

Visit the Archive to see items and hear stories about WWI and how it impacted the people of Jersey. This visit is useful to KS2 and for the study of historical evidence during WW1 and will look at:

Letters sent from the Home Front
Roll of Honour
Official documents from WW1
Visit the archive strongroom

Please email education@jerseyheritage.org for booking and more information.

Places in Jersey that tell a story of WWI

JHEducation — 2023-08-31 15:28:14 UTC

Radio programmes telling stories of WWI with Jersey links

Blanche Banques- Prisoner of War camp

JHEducation — 2023-08-31 15:32:18 UTC

Using the Historic Environment record and LiDAR imaging, you can still see the outline of the prisoner of war camp for Germans sent to Jersey during WWI.

Images

JHEducation — 2023-08-31 15:34:00 UTC

BBC sounds

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 11:32:39 UTC

Howard Davis Park

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 11:44:07 UTC

TB Davis gave the land to the public, as a memorial to his son who died in the Battle of the Somme.
Howard Leopold Davis, served with the Highland Light Infantry. Howard was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and died of his wounds on 12 August 1916. He is buried at Etaples Cemetery, France. Howard's death prompted Davis into philanthropy.

Victoria College Roll of Honour

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 11:57:22 UTC

Dunlop Family

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:13:37 UTC

This photograph dated 1894, is a family portrait, with Dr and Mrs Dunlop and their 10 children - 8 sons and 2 daughters. Dr Andrew Dunlop was a physician who worked in Jersey and was a founding member of La Société Jersiaise. This may have been the last photograph of the family together - as war absolutely decimated this military family. Two of the sons, Charles and Valentine were killed in the Boer war in 1900, Robin died as a captain in the Indian Army in 1912, Julian and Frederick were killed in 1914 during the First World War and a year later Kenneth was also killed. In just 15 years six sons were killed in conflict.

Numbers

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:26:18 UTC

•Jersey sent more than 6,000 men to fight in the British Armed forces, and 2,000 more French residents – official figures state 862 died in the British & Dominion forces, 264 in the French. Recent research puts the figure of Jerseymen killed in excess of 1,200 – the number of men wounded would have been many more times than that figure
•25% of the 326 men of the Jersey Company died during or immediately after the war

•2 Military Crosses, 2 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 2 French Medaille Militaire, 1 Belgian Croix De Guerre, 15 Military Medals

•The Jersey Militia was reconstituted in 1921, as a single infantry battalion and later in 1929 the Jersey Militia changed to an all voluntary service company of only 260 men

Jersey Women

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:26:45 UTC

•A number of women from Jersey had left the island to work in Britain’s munitions industry or to serve as nurses for military or civilian patients

•Women became entitled to vote in 1919, and enter the States in 1924

Women's war effort

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:28:17 UTC

Edith Cavell

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:29:39 UTC

One of the houses of JCG is named after Edith Cavell, a british nurse who helped soldiers in Belgium, before being executed by the German army.

Jersey Contingent

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:31:28 UTC

Despite its relatively small size, the Jersey Contingent won great praise from the units with which it served, and was singled out for special praise by the Jersey government after the war. The men’s bravery and commitment was demonstrated through the number of gallantry medals won, including two Military Crosses two Distinguished Conduct Medals, two French and one Belgian Croix de Guerre and no fewer than fifteen Military Medals. All those men of the Jersey Contingent who went to France received the 1914-15 Star, the British War medal and the Victory Medal.

Sadly the price paid was a high one. Of the 326 men who joined the Jersey Contingent, 80, or one in four, died during the war or immediately afterwards.

The Women's Legion

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:37:04 UTC

Examples of Channel Islands women who served in many different capacities in the islands, Britain and in or near various war zone

Munitions workers

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:38:16 UTC

The photograph shows four daughters of Mr J Coutu of 6, Allez Street all of whom are employed in various kinds of munitions work in England.

Seated in front is Miss Gladys Coutu, the others from left to right are Miss Edith Coutu, Mrs Gillingham (née Lilian Coutu) and Miss Aline Coutu

Labour Shortages

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:41:37 UTC

There were labour shortages during the war, which hit the agricultural sector hard, as they had increasing targets to supply food for Jersey and England.

The young men volunteering or being conscripted meant that women could be involved in the workplace to replace them.

Elise Mauger

JHEducation — 2023-09-01 14:51:52 UTC

At the age of 98 Elise Mauger could still vividly recall the horror and suffering of the Great War when she nursed the wounded and dying in France. Interviewed in 1993 for Jersey Now magazine, she said that after the war broke out she travelled to London and was offered a nursing position in the Voluntary Aid Division.

Her father, a French-born grower from the Le Marquand family who lived in Jersey with his wife and Elise and her sisters, had been called up by France to serve in the war.

'My mother hadn't liked the idea of me going to England was relieved to know I was going to nearby France, where she naively thought my father would be able to keep an eye on me,' she said in her interview.

However, when in France:

'Depending on the wind, we could hear the fighting. There was great suffering. Men were carried in straight from the trenches covered in mud and lice,' she said.

On one occasion she was commended by the matron for carrying out the correct procedure when a man was haemorrhaging. 'You saved his life', the matron told her.

'It was frightening sometimes. Men were choking from the gas attacks. One day we buried eight soldiers and I cried all the way back from the cemetery until I fell asleep'.

After 3 years nursing, she became sick and had to go to England for treatment, and was not allowed to return to France due to the mines in the channel.
She spent the remaining two years of the war working at Leeds Hospital nursing wounded soldiers.

In 1919 Elise received a certificate of service and two medals for her nursing care of men on the battlefront. She died in May 1995 aged 100.

Jersey Chronology

JHEducation — 2023-11-06 15:05:51 UTC

Great War - Jersey Contingent

JHEducation — 2023-11-06 15:07:17 UTC

JHEducation — 2023-11-06 15:07:56 UTC