Rumor has winged feet like Mercury

I've seen this allegation posted on a number of sites:

"Media reporting of the breaking child abuse and murder scandal in Jersey have conspicuously omitted to mention that Governor of the Jersey Home for Boys (Haut de la Garenne) during the 1970s and 1980s was the island's current Bailiff, Sir Philip Martin Bailhache KGB. "

No one ever has any kind of documentary evidence to show it is true!

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this allegation is a confusion between Haut de La Garenne and Victoria College.Sir Philip Bailhache was chairman of the governors at Victoria College in the early 1980s when Jack Hydes was Headmaster. This can be checked in the JEP records of that time, especially with regard to the annual prize-giving ceremonies. It makes sense, because he was a distinguished Old Victorian (and is now a trustee for the Victoria College Foundation).

That does not mean that he was in any way complicit or informed about the concealment of the abuse cases there - in particular, he was not mentioned in the Sharp report, which did mentioned all the people who were involved, including one prominent member of the board of governors, Francis Hamon (another Old Victorian).

The other related allegation doing the rounds is that is that Sir Philip Bailhache is a freemason. The unstated conclusion is that he must therefore be part of a Masonic conspiracy to cover matters up

However, if those stating this, checked their facts, they would find - on a freemasonry site - the following:
http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/16/p04.php

"A garden for residents of Les Amis in St Saviour, Jersey, a charity associated with the local Mencap, has been provided by the island's freemasons from its 1999 and 2000 collections. The main objective is to offer care and support in residential settings to adults with learning difficulties. The Province of Jersey organised the design, obtained planning permission and arranged for the contractors to undertake the work. Sir Philip Bailhache, Bailiff of Jersey, opened the garden. Although he is not a mason, his father and grandfather were, the latter being Deputy PGM between 1947 and 1959."

So it is pretty clear that Sir Philip Bailhache is not a freemason.

I know this will be unpalatable to those who like conspiracy theories (with Masonic influence), but whatever one may think of the Baillif - and I think he is completely and wholly wrong to take the "no need to apologise" line at a time when the Australian government has done the opposite (I've posted on that before on this blog) - let's have some solid facts rather than half-baked rumours.

---

"Some report elsewhere whatever is told them; the measure of fiction always increases, and each fresh narrator adds something to what he has heard."

[Lat., Hi narrata ferunt alio; mensuraque ficti
Crescit et auditus aliquid novus adjicit auctor.]
- Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso), Metamorphoses
(XII, 57)