Liberation 75: Why Occupation Islanders need free transport

Reg Langlois was on Facebook the other day, asking what was being done for those who were here during the Occupation. While it is important that if Liberation day is to continue, it must engage with everyone who has made Jersey their home, young and old alike, he did have a point.

I told him that there was an event on in our own Parish: “Come to the Parish Hall at 3.30 pm. St Brelade is doing something. Wartime era songs from the Optimistic Voices. Be great to see you there!”

  

His reply:  “Big deal...........I am sure that the Optimistic Voices are very good. But I think that most of us will not be here ten years time, and I think that something special should have been done for all of us that's left, now.........I would like to suggest that we were treated to a slap-lunch (war time food) and war time style entertainment at Fort Regent with free transport both ways.”

Now there is a certain amount of nonsense in this remark, for as he well knows wartime food in Jersey would have hardly been able to provide anything like a slap up lunch!

Even at the start of the Occupation there would have been rationing.  By the time we get to 1942 or 1943 we find that food substitutes are becoming the order of the day.

As the Occupation Society archivist Colin Isherwood noted in 2015, “'Substitute foods were essential to help bolster ever-dwindling rations during the Occupation. People were forced to improvise. By 1942, food and general goods were in such short supply that a black market emerged and bartering became the most popular method of obtaining produce or supplies.”

Parsnip coffee, carrot tea, were the order of the day by 1941, and at that time, only 1 lb of jam was available on ration, and only then once every eight weeks.

The food situation in Jersey - especially after the Normandy landings and the supply chain being cut off - was considerably worse than in England. As Colin notes, “By the end of the Occupation, an adult in Jersey was consuming just 1,137 calories per day compared to an average of 3,500 calories per day on the mainland).” Not much chance of a slap up meal with that war time food.

Now every year, the Town Hall in St Helier provides of course a special breakfast for those who were here during the Occupation.  This of course is a precursor to the Liberation ceremony in Liberation Square for which seats are available for those who were here during the Occupation should they wish to go.

But this brings me to a very real point where I think Reg does hit the nail on the head, and I do agree with him!

Most of those who were here during the Occupation are elderly, frail and unable to drive themselves to Occupation events.  Moreover even should they be fortunate enough to be close to a main bus route, the bus service on Liberation Day is a Sunday service - with the limitations that that entails.

I remember that for the 70th Liberation Day celebrations in 2015 (which were held both in Liberation square and in the People's Park) that there were some special coaches put on to take people from parishes into People's Park. Indeed I remember helping one elderly lady with a wheeled walking aid to negotiate the curb and get back to her coach afterwards.

It seems to me that as next year will be the 75th anniversary of Liberation and therefore a significant milestone that thought should be given by each of the Parish Constables or by the States themselves to providing some kind of transportation by coach to any of the events.

This even includes events in their own Parish because it is hard for elderly pensioners to make their own way there - and I do not think it is fair that they should be expected to pay what in effect would be bank holiday rates for taxis. 

They were here during the war and some due respect should be shown to the fact that they are our last living link to those times.

I would hope therefore that with the plans - as they begin to progress later this year - that thought is given to some kind of transportation probably by coach or minibus so that those who wish to attend events who were here during the occupation can contact their parish hall and get transport allocated to them.

This to my mind would be a far better use of funds than the permanent closing of a road next to Liberation square which seems to me to be nothing but a vanity project and a chance for someone to get their name immortalized on a stone commemorating the event.

As that was to have cost at least £2 million, I am sure that funding would be better spent ensuring that those who were here during the Occupation have suitable transport to enable them to enjoy events, including the breakfast at the Town Hall, should they so wish. 

After all this will probably be one of the last biggest events for the surviving islanders from Occupation times. They need to be given the help they need to take part, if they wish to do so, and you may be surprised how many would like to, but are unable to because of lack of transport.

Elderly people are too often captives in their own homes, unable to move too far because of mobility issues and can feel quite isolated. Putting funds into such a worthwhile transport project would indeed be a mark of liberation!