Category: Evacuation

ELIZABETH COLLEGE IN EXILE 1940 TO 1945.

Whilst going through the numerous copies of the Guernsey Press from the Occupation years I found this in the Guernsey Weekly Press of 20 June 1945.

It is an article about my old school Elizabeth College during the years that the pupils and staff spent in exile in England. Link to a longer account of their time at the end of this post.

I was given a box of Channel Islands Monthly Reviews and in the May 1943 edition spotted this letter:

If you want to read a more detailed account of the evacuation and exile of Elizabeth there is a more detailed account written by Vernon Collenette who was a pupil at the time and teacher at Elizabeth College. Mr Collenette was a teacher at the time that I was at Elizabeth College in the 1980s.

You can read his account here as Elizabeth College have digitised it.

If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorized posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.

You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.


I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.

Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.

© Nick Le Huray

OUTRAGE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS – 9 JULY 1940

Just a short blog post today to flag an article that may be of interest. Regular readers of the blog will be aware that the demilitarisation of the Channel Islands in June 1940 was not without controversy in UK Government circles.

The article below from the Birmingham Daily Post – Wednesday 10 July 1940 details various concerns raised in the House of Lords. Lord Portsea, who was born in Jersey, was to remain vocal throughout the war in raising his concerns in respect of the Channel Islands. I mention him in my blog about False Hope And Fear as a result of D-Day when he called for a force of Channel Islanders to be raised to liberate the Channel Islands. You can find that here

All newspaper extracts are Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

If you would like to receive email notifications of future blogs, you can sign up to the right of this blog post or here. Feel free to look around the website, where I have categorized posts to make them easier to find and other resources such as tours, places to visit and films that may be of interest.

You can also follow the blog on Twitter at @Fortress_Island where I share other information and photographs. If you prefer Facebook I also have a page there.

If you have questions or information to share you can contact me by email on Contact@Island-Fortress.Com.

You can also find articles, podcasts, TV appearances and other social media etc here.


I will be adding more as time permits. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed it. Please share it on social media or add a comment if you did. Feedback is always appreciated.

Also happy to be contacted with questions about the war in the Channel Islands, media appearances, podcasts etc.

© Nick Le Huray

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