Iris Medora Le Feuvre was born in the Parish of Saint Martin, Jersey. She was educated at St Peter Elementary School, and then at the States Intermediate School. During the German Occupation of Jersey (1940-1945), her family hid a Russian prisoner of war, and fed and sheltered him for the duration. She was employed as a book keeper between 1945 and 1948, when she met and married Eric G. Le Feuvre, a St Lawrence farmer. A committed Methodist, she helped with the inception of the Communicare project.
States of Jersey: She was elected Deputy for the Parish of St Lawrence from 1978 to 1981, and 1984 to 1999 was Connétable of St. Lawrence. She was the first woman to be elected Connétable. During this time she was President of the Education Committee, and oversaw the replacement of the decaying d'Hautree School with the building of Haute Vallée School.
That's the bare bones from Wikipedia. But for me, Iris was always Aunty Iris. So here are a few personal notes.
She was a friend of my mother, Ann Bellows (nee Shepard) for many years, and we would often go up the spend an afternoon at their family's farm in St Laurence, or she would come down with her family to my mother's house, and we'd play with Andrew (her son) in the garden or go swimming across the road in the sea.
The clip below, about 50 seconds in, shows her chatting to my mother, with her husband Eric ("Uncle Eric") just to the right of the shot. Her son Andrew also cycles in and out of shot. It's a bit blurred but this is a transfer from an old and somewhat degraded cine camera film.
Of course, everyone who was a close friend of your parent's family, in those days, was an "Aunt" or "Uncle" - it didn't mean you were related. It was just a term that we all used.
On the farm, we would often go out along the country lanes with the Le Feuvre's son Andrew, who was about our age, and in the autumn collect horse chestnuts when they fell for the conkers. We'd enjoy round the kitchen table conversation, with her and my mother chatting away and good Jersey cooking, with of course all freshly grown vegetables. Of her other sons, I think James was an University and we didn't see much of him, but Peter was often there - like his biblical namesake, "a rock", that we very much looked up to and admired. My sister was allowed to drive their tractor at quite a young age - I think around 12 or 13 - on their fields, and I learned to drive my first car through a pathway set up in a grassy field with tea-chests!
Her other sons, Peter and James would sometimes be there, and Eric her husband I also remember - he was always fairly quiet, which wasn't perhaps surprising with two women chatting! We would also see their flowers growing in the fields - the 1970s were when Jersey grew flowers for export and sale in abundance, and there was no need to buy in flowers for the Battle of Flowers.
She was a committed Methodist, but ecumenism was starting, and there were some joint services, as well as joint harvest festival suppers with St Aubin on the Hill and St Aubin Methodist churches at the Parish Hall. But I always had the belief that Methodists were teetotal, and having attended the communion service at St Aubin Methodist - Iris's church - the communion "wine" was in small cups and was in fact grape juice. So it came as something of a surprise when we attended her son Peter's 21st birthday party in the grounds of their house to find that wine was freely flowing! The miracle of St Lawrence was as amazing as the miracle at Cana!
The one blot on her copybook was when she signed a letter thanking the Maguires for their work when in fact they had been abusing children. That cost her the post of head of the Child Protection Committee and she was sacked by Stuart Syvret. The findings of the care inquiry, however, showed a more complex background, where Anton Skinner, Head of Children’s Services, admitted providing a letter to house-parents Alan and Jane Maguire to secure their swift removal from Blanche Pierre - and effectively bamboozling the committee into accepting it, and Iris into signing it, as he suspected the Maguires of abuse and wanted to move them on as quickly as possible - rather than suspending them pending an investigation. The authorship of the letter, thanking them for their good work, and the flawed reasoning of Mr Skinner only came to light in the Care Inquiry. It is sad that she was manipulated in this way by a persuasive civil servant, but she wasn't the first or last, as we know.
After University, and as I grew older, our families didn't really meet that much, although, with Eric, she came to my wedding in 1989. In recent years, I still used to see her and chat at the Lent lunches on Good Friday at St Brelade's Parish Hall, where she would often be on the same table as another former Constable, Enid Quenault. I remember her telling me that both herself and Enid decided to retire from the States in the same year - and it was later that year that States members began to be paid - "we just missed out on it all", she said. But in those days, of course, States members were not paid, and it was often considered a matter of civic duty to stand for the States.
Those from the farming community, as both herself and Enid Quenault were, could often rearrange their time better to attend States meetings, and of course there were less sittings and legislation than we have nowadays. Nevertheless, those States of yesteryear could still make a mark, and looking back through my notes, I was pleased to see that she was supportive of the Women's Refuge in 1987 - 25 voted for, and 22 voted against, some of them very senior Senators.
She still remained a staunch Methodist and the last time I saw her was at a service taken by Rev. Jenny Pathmarajah at St Aubin Methodist (her church) last year. She could no longer drive, but her mind was still sharp. One of her sons - I think it was Andrew - would drop her off and pick her up.
The last word perhaps should go to her family. Their tribute was as follows:
"This informed many of her greatest achievements as President of the Education Committee. This included the building of the new Haute Vallée School; the reconstruction of Rouge Bouillon primary school following a devastating fire; and the provision of many new nursery units attached to Island primary schools, an investment in early years provision that enabled mothers to choose to remain active in the workforce."
"After her retirement from the States Assembly in 2000, she was honoured to be awarded an MBE by Her Majesty The Queen for her services to the community, which included the establishment of Communicare, Vice President of the National Trust, Chair of the Jersey Child Care Trust and Chair of the Committee for the Eradication of Poverty – among many other roles."
However, they added: "But perhaps her greatest passion was for her family.
"She was a warm and fun-loving wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. A proud Jersey woman who will be much missed, and an inspiration to all who knew her."
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