On 1 January more than 300 documents, which had previously been kept from publication for periods of 30, 75 and 100 years, were officially opened for the first time by Jersey Archive.
They include the Political Prisoners’ Register from the Occupation years, which was maintained by the Prison from August 1940 to December 1944. It contains the names of 506 individuals whose crimes were defined as ‘political’ and therefore can be inferred as crimes against the German authorities.
From teenagers to the elderly, labourers to advocates, they were sentenced for everything from painting V-signs and spreading propaganda to listening to radios. Many were sent to France to serve their sentences, and while some returned safely after the Liberation, others – such as Louisa Gould, now well known for helping to hide a Russian prisoner of war – did not. Among the stories is that of Philip George Ozard, who, in May 1942, was sentenced to five years in prison for the unauthorised possession of weapons. He was sent to Caen prison in France in 1942 and was then transferred on to Germany, where he was at Neuoffingen Forced Labour Camp until 9 May 1944. He was finally liberated by American forces from Landsberg Prison on 30 April 1945 and returned to Jersey, where he lived until his death in 1969.
Two of the youngest individuals admitted to the Prison during the period were Beryl Wickings, aged 14, and Kathleen Duckworth, aged 15. The register shows that both girls were still at school when they were convicted for political offences. They were liberated after a night in prison.
However, Marcel Auger, a 15-year-old boy convicted of theft, was held for much longer. He was sentenced to three months and sent to France in November 1942.
Among the other newly opened records are the 1919 hospital admission register, police arrest registers, witness depositions in criminal cases and committee minute books.
In 1919 the Hospital also served as Jersey’s poorhouse, and therefore poverty is the reason for the admission of a number of individuals.
And the register shows that often entire families would be admitted if their mother or father was ill. For example, on 4 June 1919 Isabella Shiner, the widow of Ernest Gosselin, was admitted with rheumatism at the age of 36. Her four children, Mary, Ernest, Jane and Alice, were also admitted, as, with their father having passed away, there was nowhere else for them to go. The register shows that the children stayed at the Hospital for nearly three months before being placed in the Home for Girls and Home for Boys.
Linda Romeril, archives and collections director at Jersey Heritage, said: ‘It is always fascinating to be able to study these documents and to use them to tell the stories of individuals who lived in Jersey up to a century ago.
‘In 2020, we celebrate 75 years since the Island was liberated and it is fitting that in this significant year the Political Prisoners’ Register from HM Prison is one of the documents that has been opened to the public.’
