Alderney set to mark liberation for first time

Alderney is set to mark the date of the island's liberation from German troops for the first time on the 80th anniversary.

The island annually celebrates Homecoming on 15 December - seven months on from the island's liberation when the first families who were evacuated in 1940 arrived home.

Alderney, the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, were occupied by the Germans in 1940 as part of their advance across Europe. The liberation of Alderney came on 16 May 1945 - one week after Guernsey and Jersey.

A series of events is planned later to mark the 80th anniversary.

A service of commemoration is due to take place at the RNLI station at Braye Harbour at 11:00 BST.

It will be followed by a parade and a ceremony at the Island Hall at 14:00.

Jurat Colin Partridge, Alderney-based historian and founder of The Henry Euler Memorial Trust, believed now was the time to "look at liberation with different eyes".

By the time of the Germans invaded Alderney, most of the island's 1,500 residents had been evacuated - but not all.

Mr Partridge said there were 16 civilians left in the island by July 1944.

"They don't think of it as liberation today simply because there were only a handful of islanders here," he said.

"They were scattered the length and breadth of the British Isles in their exile.

"Certainly they wouldn't have been able to come together on that day themselves, and therefore, when they returned seven months later, Homecoming meant a lot more to them."

Alfred Gaudion was on the first boat back to the island in December 1940 with his parents and two brothers and he believed celebrating the liberation of Alderney was "long overdue".

He said: "It's celebrated on the other islands so why not Alderney?"

"People say there was nobody here but the island was liberated.

"My wife's grandfather stayed behind to look after his cattle."

Barbara Benfield, who founded Age Concern Alderney, said Liberation Day should also be commemorated as well as Homecoming in December.

"It's odd that all those years ago when Guernsey and Jersey decided on a bank holiday for Liberation Day, Alderney didn't decide the same and have Liberation Day on 16 May for the signing of the treaty," she said.

"If the homecomers hadn't come home, Alderney would be non-existent so we've got a lot to be grateful for and to remember them and the hard work and effort they put into when they came home.

"It must have been devastating for all of them."

Lt Gen Richard Cripwell, Lieutenant-Governor of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, said liberation was a "vital date in the history of these islands".

"The trauma that was suffered by the island and its people and especially those who were held captive here is something that deserves to be remembered," he said.

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