WWI Commemoration

Commemorating in Jersey the Anniversary of the end of the Great War.

The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month, 1918

Prepared by Jersey historians Howard Baker and Peter Tabb.

Unlike in the Second World War when the Western Front came to them, in the Great War the front stayed quite firmly far to the east of the Channel Islands in a broad strip of mud, shell-holes, ruins and corpses stretching from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border.

Nevertheless 2,298 young men of the Islands gave their lives in the conflict from the 12,460 (6,292 from the Bailiwick of Jersey and 6,168 from the Bailiwick of Guernsey) who rallied to the colours.  Both Islands maintained Royal Militias that provided young men already trained in basic military drills.

In March 1915 the Jersey Overseas Contingent of the Royal Jersey Militia, consisting of six officers and 224 other ranks commanded by Captain, later Lt Colonel, Stocker, went into active service with the 7th (Service) Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles. Men of the Contingent took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the third battle of Ypres at the end of July 1917.  They were withdrawn after four days having suffered heavy casualties. In November 1917 the remnants fought at Cambrai alongside the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry.

No fewer than 631 former members of the Victoria College OTC served in the Great War of whom 126 were killed.  They served with distinction and the Victoria Cross was awarded to former cadets Lt W.A.M. Bruce and Temp. Lt (Acting Capt.) A.M.C. McReady-Diarmid.

Altogether 212 decorations for gallantry were awarded to Islanders.

For the Islands themselves the Great War had little direct impact although for more than two thousand families a telegram from the Minister of War would bring the horrors of the Western Front devastatingly home.

In December 1914 the War Office ordered the building of a permanent prisoner-of-war camp in Jersey capable of housing 1,000 inmates in rows of huts.  The site chosen was Blanches Banques on land already owned by the British Government.  The camp thus created was about 300 yards square and surrounded by a ten foot high barbed wire fence with buildings for the guards outside the perimeter.

The first prisoners from the Western Front arrived in March 1915 and by July it was guarding 1,500 inmates.  The camp remained in being until October 1919 and during the time it was open there were a number of escape attempts including at least two tunnels which were defeated by the soft sand on which the camp was built.  Several inmates died during their incarceration and were buried in a corner of St Brelade’s church cemetery.  In the Second World War, the occupying forces requisitioned much of the cemetery so that the fallen of WWII could lay alongside their kamaraden of WWI. 

There was an ever-present threat of an attack by German U-boats but in practice submarines, although they haunted coasts and harbours much more than they would in the Second World War, were still very vulnerable in the comparatively shallow waters around the Channel Islands.  The Royal and French Navies maintained a presence in the Islands throughout the Great War, U-boats were occasionally spotted in the English Channel near the Islands and to counter this threat a sea plane base was considered for St Catherine’s Bay.

Altogether 179 Jerseymen served in the Royal Flying Corps or the Royal Naval Air Service of whom eight died.  One of these was Lt Stanley Mossop DSC who, in August 1918, landed his seaplane in St Helier Harbour in order to pay an unofficial visit to his parents’ home in nearby Commercial Buildings.  Two days later he was killed while landing his damaged craft near Bayeux.

In the course of the Great War, Jersey contributed £100,000 to the war effort but in 1923 the British Government suggested that Jersey might like to contribute an annual contribution of £275,000 towards the running costs of the British Empire.  This suggestion was declined and instead the States of Jersey offered a single payment of £300,000 towards the coast of the Great War which was eventually paid in 1927.

The Great War CI Group

The information presented here has been kindly supplied by the Channel Islands Great War Study Group. Visit their website at http://www.greatwarci.net/

Poppy Appeal - supporting the Royal British Legion

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