Well I have not had the chance to write a blog in quite awhile but what better day to kick it off again on the day Guernsey got liberated after World War II; Liberation Day to all you fellow Guerns out there! So today I am feeling very patriotic for my little island.
Over the last 9 months at Brookes I have been named by my friends as an ‘ambassador’ for Guernsey because I do seem to celebrate Guernsey at any possible moment! So saying that, if architecture ever fails I am sure I will be able to get a job at ‘Visit Guernsey’, promoting Guernsey! I would be surprised if my bragging has not already increased the number of tourists to the island!
‘Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight to-night (Tuesday, May 8)……..and our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed to-day.’ Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Liberation Day is the celebration of the island being free from the occupation of the Germans during 1940-1945 following the end of the WWII. This event in history has no doubt played a pivotal moment in the history of Guernsey; transforming our cliffs and shorelines with the brutal forms of the German bunkers and making our island and people who we are today.
On the 19th June 1940 there was the ‘Evacuation of Children’ from the island before the invasion, with some 4000 children leaving. More islanders left before the occupation which brought the island population down by half to 17,000. My Nan was one of the children to be evacuated ago with her sister and has such an interesting story of her time during the war; one which I never get tired of hearing.
So on the day when all Guerns feel extremely proud of our little rock (I like many others are always proud to be a Guern everyday of the year!), I think the song ‘Sarnia Cheire’, Guernsey’s anthem, is the song to celebrate this day and was when the island was freed 68 years ago.
‘Sarnia Cherie. Gem of the sea.
Home of my childhood, my heart longs for thee.
Thy voice calls me ever, forget thee I’ll never,
Island of beauty. Sarnia Cherie.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prGeoO4bgUw&feature=youtu.be