Tom Goss: A Tribute

As Tom Goss retired as Dean of Jersey in 1985, Michael Halliwell penned this tribute to him in the Church Magazine, "The Pilot".

A brief resume of his life is given here from Wikipedia:

The Rt Rev Thomas Ashworth Goss MA was born on 27 July 1912 and educated at Shardlow Hall, Aldenham and the University of St Andrews. He was ordained in 1938 and began his ecclesiastical career with a curacy at Frodingham, after which he became a chaplain in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 

He was a Japanese prisoner of war from 1942 to 1945. When peace returned he became vicar of Sutton Le Marsh until 1951, when he returned to the RAF, serving until 1967. An Honorary Chaplain to the Queen, he was Dean of Jersey from 1971 to 1985. He died on 10 December 1997.

St Brelade Parish Notes, The Pilot, 1985
by Michael Halliwell

THE DEANERY. When I arrived in Germany in 1965 as newly-appointed chaplain to the British Embassy in Bonn, I was also given charge of the Anglican civilian congregation in Cologne. Anglicans had worshipped in Cologne since the I7th Century, but the main Church of England presence at that time was that of the Royal Air Force.

It was not long before I heard about a man called Tom Goss who was a Forces' Chaplain ministering to services families in and around the city and playing an important part in broadcasting as Chaplain in Cologne to the British Forces Network, as it was then known. Though we never met, I was aware that when he left Cologne and his post was not filled, there was a sense in which I was treading in his foot- steps, and when the establishment there was further run down, I was officiating Chaplin for a short while to the R.A. F. in Cologne.

Great was my interest, therefore, when I heard that Tom Goss had been appointed to Jersey as Rector of St Saviour and subsequently of course Rector of St Helier and Dean.

When in due course I returned to the Island, I was glad of the opportunity of working under him in the Deanery and of sharing with him in the onward development of the Communicare Project. With his usual modesty he will say that his role in the development of the Communicare Centre was a relatively minor one.

But when you are running an experiment, there is a great deal to be said for having a chairman who allows you to get on with making your own mistakes and does not interfere with the detailed day-to-day planning and execution. This is exactly what he did for us, but the impression should not be given that whilst he stood back from the project he in any way failed to identify with it. It was a great help to know that when we got into scrapes, as we did from time to time, he was there with advice and support.

Without that support, and the link with the Island Church which came from having the Dean as Chairman of the Sponsoring Body (as it then was), it is unlikely that Communicare would have been the success that it undoubtedly is.

The ministry of Dean is a varied and difficult one, one takes a lot of knocks, and is the prey for everyone's expectations! When thanked for what he has done, Tom Goss has been invariably humble about his achievements, but there are enormous numbers of ordinary people who are deeply grateful for his warmth and Christian friendship, and the large number of leaders in the Island community who have surely found in him a friendly and approachable representative of the Church.

In a time of rapid change in the life of the church, Tom Goss' ministry has had strong conservative elements (some would say too conservative!), but in a conservative island it is probably not a bad thing if someone at the top represents conservative traditions.

I shall always feel personally grateful to Tom Goss for the unequivocal stand that he took at the time of the Liberation Celebrations on the issue of reconciliation. It was profoundly encouraging to hear from a man, who had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, supporting the Clergy Chapter in urging the Liberation Committee to invite a German pastor as a gesture of reconciliation. It is a profound pity that the Committee was unable to accept his advice.

WELCOMES. The pace of change in the Deanery has been rapid in recent years; we have just welcomed the Rev Michael Nicolle to St John and I was sorry that my absence from the Island prevented me sharing in the Service of Institution. We shall very soon be welcoming our new Dean and the new Rector of St Helier, the Rev Basil O'Ferrall, and there are vacancies both present and impending at St Luke's and All Saints with St Simon's. These items will figure largely on the agenda of our new Dean, and we must pray for him and for the church officers of the districts concerned as well as for the Pastoral Committee that the planning and decisions which are taken will be in accordance with God's will for our Island Church. This is undoubtedly an unparalleled opportunity to look carefully at the ministry of the church in St Helier and its suburbs, and to plan carefully for the future.

I can only say that from my fourteen years experience the benefits of shared ministry can be seen to outweigh any possible disadvantages. I believe that the bulk of the members of four congregations would agree with this.

COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES. At its first meeting the Church Council agreed to the appointment of a number of committees to be responsible for various aspects of the parish's work. These have had preliminary meetings, and the second meeting of the Council looked at the ideas which were emerging. The committees have been given authority to continue their discussions and to draw up future plans. We hope that in the autumn there will be an opportunity greatly to enlarge the number of our House Groups beyond the present figure of 10 to enable as many as possible of our members to take part in this type of Christian activity. We shall of course need to train more leaders and obtain further offers of hospitality for the groups. Any offers would be gratefully received.

The autumn will also see the beginning of a two-year training course for lay readers which will be shared jointly with the Rev Laurie Binder and the Rev Colin Hough. Inevitably this will mean that I shall not be as free as I was for other parochial affairs, but it is hoped that you will be able to understand the need for this reallocation of time for training new leaders for the Church.

HOLY BAPTISM. Laura Ellen Susan Cattell; Gregory James Cadec Anderton; Aimee Elaine Cadec Anderton; Lucy-Jayne Lewington.

HOLY MATRIMONY. Peter Philip Samson to Sarah Ann Flambard; John Michael Hind to Alison Joy Corfield; Daryl Mark Camm to Joy Rhodes; Andrew Charles Diggle to Suzanne May Le Duc; Alan Martin Knight to Lynda Joyce Aked; Nigel Mark Godfrey to Sonia Veronica Scott.

BURIALS. Rosa Maud Amy Richards, aged 76; Doris Mabel Le Gros, 61; Betty Millicent Thackrey, 54; Richard Francis Wickham, 75.

The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church - Part 3

German Ossuary at Huisnes-sur-Mer in Normandy

From the pages of "The Pilot", in 1991, comes the final article about the German cemetery in St Brelade's Church.

Parts 1 and 2 can be read here...

http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-german-cemetery-at-st-brelades.html
http://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-german-cemetery-at-st-brelades_9.html


The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church during the Second World War  - Part 3
By Michael Halliwell and David Ling

The third and final part of a serialisation of the booklet compiled by David Ling and the Rev Michael Halliwell on the Occupation and how it affected the Church of St Brelade.

During the First World War Jersey was host to a number of prisoners-of-war captured on the Continent. Those that died in captivity were buried in the cemetery at St Brelade's Church so it was natural in a way that, following the invasion of the Island by forces of the Third Reich in 1940, that St Brelade's Cemetery should be chosen as the burial ground for those who should fall in the line of duty.

Following the cessation of hostilities and the Liberation, administration of the German burial ground passed to the Imperial War Graves Commission. in the late 1950's agreement was reached between the War Grave Commissions of all affected nations to the repatriation or reburial in dedicated war graves of those currently interred on foreign soil. The Bailiff, Lord Coutanche, gave his permission for the exhumations to take place in July 1961 which prompted a reply from the German Commission a month later:

GERMAN WAR GRAVES COMMISSION

The German War Graves Commission wrote on 14th August 1961 to the Bailiff, Lord Coutanche:

"Dear Sir,

You were kind enough to agree to our beginning the removal of German war dead from the Isle of Jersey during the second half of October this year and, as you will note from our letter of 8th August 1961, the number of German war dead to be exhumed in the Isle of Jersey was increased to 347. Owing to the increase of the exhumations it will be necessary to increase the number of the service-personnel accordingly.

Your kind granting a permit of residence and employment for the exhumers would be appreciated very much."

German Charnel House at Mont de Huisnes, Manche, Normandy

This marked the construction of the first German tomb of its kind ever to have been built in France. It holds the remains of 11,931 German dead from the Second World War and it includes 347 from Jersey.

Exhumations to France

The exhumations, in the autumn of 1961, took place after a considerable amount of paper-work. The seven members of the Volksbund staff were given permission to supervise the work helped by "twelve navvies," provided by Jersey, for two to three weeks.

In 1971 the Rev'd Michael Halliwell became Rector of St Brelade's parish, having been exiled from Jersey during the Occupation, and having subsequently held the appointment of Chaplain to the British. Embassy in Bonn, Western Germany.

It seemed to him entirely appropriate that this place, a holy site respected by people of many different nationalities over the centuries, and a crossroads of many different cultures, should continue to be remembered as a place where the power of God is strong to save and to reconcile man with his fellow man, beyond the divisions of history and across the boundaries of nationality.

In 1985 the Islands celebrated the 40th anniversary of their liberation, and on Sunday 12th May, in the Parish Church, a Eucharist for Peace and Reconciliation was celebrated and attended by former members of the Allied and German armed forces and members of the Channel Islands Occupation Society.

The preacher was Dr Avrill Darling who served on the medical staff of the Jersey General Hospital throughout the Occupation. After the service, wreaths were laid at the parish war memorial in memory of the war dead of all nations.

It is the earnest hope of the authors of this article that this place, where British and Germans once lay buried within the confines of one parochial churchyard, will remain in the future a place where men and women of all nations can find peace with God and with each other.

"God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them; and He has committed to us the message of Reconciliation. " 2 Cor. 5:19,20

The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church - Part 2

From the pages of "The Pilot", in 1991, comes this article about the German cemetery in St Brelade's Church.

After part 1, a correspondent of mine, Maureen Smith Ponting, said that:

"This was particularly interesting to me Tony, My father, the late James R Smith, was a plumber for Le Quesne the plumbing and heating firm in New St. He worked for them for 54 years, and he obviously worked a lot with lead. ( no plastic pipes etc, then! ) he was told to report to the Hospital Mortuary one day, and found that he was to line all the coffins in lead, and then seal them after the bodies were put inside, as they were going to be repatriated to their home country when hostilities ceased."

"All those weeks he worked doing this sad duty, he had an armed German guard watching over him! One of his many stories of the different jobs he performed during his working life, and used to recount to my brother and I during The Occupation. "

Thanks to her for permission to share this most interesting memory, especially as the second part deals with the repatriation of the German dead. It is something I have never read anywhere else.

The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church during the Second World War - Part 2
By Michael Halliwell and David Ling

The second part of a serialisation of the booklet compiled by David Ling and the Rev Michael Halliwell on the Occupation and how it affected the Church of St Brelade.

Last month we heard how the Occupation forces chose St Brelade's for their burial ground, the Strangers' Cemetery and how it was used for interment of foreign nationals and also disgraced German military personnel. Now David Ling and the Rev Michael Halliwell continue their story of St Brelade's Cemetery.

BRITISH AND ALLIED CASUALTIES

The sinking of ships, shooting down of planes etc occasionally resulted in a British, American or French body being washed ashore and subsequently buried in the new cemetery at Mont-a-l'Abbe. The authorities decided to prepare a proper military cemetery for the British and Allied dead. The choice of place fell on Howard Davis Park, and a plot near St Luke's Church was chosen. It was dedicated on 26th November 1943 by the Dean, the Very Rev'd Matthew Le Marinel. After the War the bodies of all but the British were exhumed and returned to their countries.

The Liberation

With the ending of hostilities control of the German military cemetery passed from the Standortkommandantur to the Imperial War Graves Commission. One of their first acts was to transfer the sixteen German coffins buried in the Rectory garden across the road, to the main cemetery. These were re-buried where space could be found - along the walls and paths.

The Rectory garden had been prepared for a further 245 burials providing for a total of 449 in the whole cemetery. At the same time the swastika, which formed the central part of the Iron Cross design of the memorials, was painted out, but only on these sixteen re-interments.

The normal German practice for erecting their memorial crosses is to do so at the foot of the burial plot and not at the head. When these crosses were later removed by the War Graves Commission, they were replaced by the standard white cross of the British military, at the head. An extract from the Jersey Evening Post of 16th January 1948:

“Work is in progress at the German War Cemetery at St Brelade for the purpose of bringing it into line with all war cemeteries under the care of the imperial War Graves Commission, whether at home, on the Continent, or abroad. The wooden crosses have been removed and the ground levelled prior to fresh grass being sown. When the grass has grown, the crosses will be replaced on the graves but at the head, and not at the foot of each grave as is the German custom.”

Transferral to France

In 1960 all the Channel Islands' authorities were approached by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgraber-fiirsorge - the German equivalent of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They wrote, on 23rd September of that year, of the previous year's agreement between the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany to grant all possible facilities to the War Grave Commissions of each in respect of the dead:

"In the course of creating a final and dignified place of rest for all German war dead in Great Britain we intend to have those German war dead buried in the Channel Islands, exhumed and re-buried in the Military Cemetery, Mont de Huisnes, Manche, France ... (and there being no objections) ... we hereby approach the Royal Court of Jersey to give their consent to the exhumation of the German war dead, and to their transfer to the German Military Cemetery, Mont de Huisnes... “

It was decided that, apart from those at Fort George, Guernsey, all German Military war dead should be transferred to this new charnel house at Mont de Huisnes, Manche, in Normandy and close to Mont St Michel.

Lord Coutanche, Bailiff of Jersey, wrote to the German War Graves Commission, on 14th July 1961, as follows:

“PERMISSION is hereby granted to the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund Deutsche Kriegs-graberfitrsorge'), of Kassel, Germany.--“

“TO EXHUME two hundred and twenty-one (221) bodies which are now buried in the Church Yard of the Parish of St Brelade in the Island of Jersey, and particulars whereof are set out in the Schedule hereto. “

“AND TO REMOVE them out of the Island for re-burial in a Military Cemetery in France.”

“The said exhumation shall be carried out in the presence of the Constable or one of the Centeniers of the said Parish of St Brelade, under such conditions and with such precautions as the Parochial and Sanitary Authorities shall deem necessary, and appropriate from the points of view of good order and public health, and subject to the making of previous arrangements with the Ecclesiastical Authorities concerned. “

“The said removal shall be carried out under such conditions, and with such precautions as the Constable of St Helier and the Harbour Authorities shall deem necessary and appropriate from the points of view of good order and public health.”

Given at Jersey this fourteenth day of July one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one.

(Sgd.) COUTANCHE
Bailiff. 

The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church - Part 1

From the pages of "The Pilot", in 1991, comes this article about the German cemetery in St Brelade's Church.

A note about the  SS Schokland mentioned in the text. There are two Youtube videos of a visit to the wreck taken by Trevor Richomme.

Diving the SS.Schokland. 19/5/13.
https://youtu.be/tb8YMyL3LAA
https://youtu.be/hmk27XXoOWw

The Schokland, a Dutch freighter which sank after hitting a reef in 1943 while under the command of the German forces. She now sits upright, 225 feet long.

Tony Titterington discovered the wreck of the ss Schokland in 1964. Here is an extract from "Master of the Wrecks":

"The Schokland was an 1100-ton merchant steamer, built in Holland in 1915 and used by the German forces during the occupation to carry cargoes between the islands and France. In January 1943 she headed for St Malo as part of a convoy, carrying building materials and large numbers of German troops going home on leave. In the hands of an inexperienced master she ran onto rocks south of the island and sank in half an hour with the loss of 136 lives. Tony discovered the wreck’s rough position by transit marks and then pin pointed it with a primitive echo sounder. This process took only half an hour and he now laughs when he remembers how long that seemed at the time. The wreck was in a very good condition and was intact except for the removal of its guns, presumably by German divers during the war. Tony recovered a number of items including the ship’s bell, telegraph and maker’s plate."

The German Cemetery at St Brelade's Church during the Second World War
By Michael Halliwell and David Ling
Part 1
The first part of a serialisation of the booklet compiled by David Ling and the Rev Michael Halliwell on the Occupation and how it affected the Church of St Brelade.

THE GERMAN INVASION

The year 1940 brought the first invading army since the French landed on Jersey in 1781, and for five long years the Island became part of the Third Reich.

Before that, during the First World War, while an exiled German was working on the wall paintings in the Fishermen's Chapel, some of his compatriots were held as prisoners of war in a camp nearby, and the bodies of those who died in captivity were brought to the cemetery for burial. It was natural, with their compatriots already buried here for the German authorities to choose St Brelade, and its church and cemetery, for further interments.

The first such burial took place in July 1940, only ten days after the arrival of the first occupying forces. The First interments were alongside the graves of those who died in the First World War, but from February 1942 burials were located in two large blocks separated by a gravel path.

In the following month the cemetery was designated a Heldenfriedhof or Heroes' Cemetery. Trees were planted, rough granite paths laid, and wooden gates with large representations of the swastika within the Iron Cross were installed in facing entrances to the cemetery and the Rectory garden. Bushes were planted to separate the civil from the military sections.

The sinking of the SS Schokland

In 1943, a Dutch cargo ship of 1,500 tons, the SS Schokland, was taking some 200-250 Germans on leave, to St Malo.

The ship foundered close to the southern shore of Jersey, in the early hours of 5th January, with heavy loss of life. This was due to crowding too many passengers, for the short sea crossing; into the stern hold, below a twenty foot vertical ladder and under a 50 cm square hatch. This deplorable bottleneck lead to the high number of casualties.

For days afterwards a number of bodies was washed ashore and locals recall them being "stacked like timber" on the Albert Pier, awaiting burial. The ship's captain swam ashore and was later court-martialled for losing the ship. She lies in 23 metres of water some 2,000 metres off Noirmont Point, but is rapidly breaking up

Suddenly the-Heroes' Cemetery had a large-input of new graves and by the end of the year the first block was nearly full. The second block was full by February 1945 when the first of sixteen burials was made in a new area in the Rectory garden.

The Strangers' Cemetery

The German cemetery at St Brelade was, as already stated, a Heldenfriedhof and was not available for the burial of non-Germans in their employ. The Strangers' Cemetery at the top of Westmount, St Helier; was opened in 1865 replacing an earlier strangers' burial ground. It had been used for soldiers of the Jersey garrison and for temporary residents who died while staying or serving in Jersey.

Prior to 1880 all burials in Jersey church graveyards had to be carried out using the rite of the Church of England. Book of Common Prayer, with the Rector as officiant. Thus, ministers of other denominations would sometimes use the Strangers' Cemetery which fulfilled the function of a free cemetery as it was owned by the States of Jersey,

In 1880 the law was changed in England, and effectively in Jersey, prohibiting the Rectors of the Parish Churches from refusing ministers of other denominations using their own liturgy. The Mont-a-l'Abbe cemetery was opened and the Strangers' Cemetery became the place of burial for the very poor, and for unknown strangers. This is the site of the present crematorium which was opened in December 1961. Prior to that, cremations had to be performed at Le Foulon, Guernsey, the the only Channel Islands cemetery with a crematorium.

With the advent of the German occupying forces in 1940, the Strangers' Cemetery became the burial place for all the non-German deceased and it was renamed the Westmountfriedhof. Russian impressed labourers, some Polish, French and Algerians, were buried here, each in the plot for his own nationality, carefully allotted by the Germans.

Violent Deaths

Two German soldiers, buried in the St Brelade cemetery, had committed suicide. Their bodies, later deemed unfit for a heroes' burial, were exhumed and re-buried in the Westmountfriedhof, the first German nationals in the Strangers' Cemetery. The body of an Italian soldier made the opposite journey, being exhumed from Westmount and re-buried in the Heldenfriedhof, the Heroes' Cemetery at St Brelade, in a plot set apart for Italians, their allies. Another exhumation was that of a Russian prisoner who had escaped from Elizabeth Castle and whose body had been found floating in the sea. He was buried in the Russian section of Westmount. His escape and death perhaps tarnished the official records, for his body was exhumed, examined again for nationality, and re-buried in the French section.

By Liberation Day twelve more German soldiers had been denied burial at the St Brelade cemetery, six more deaths through suicide, five executed. by firing squad, and one through an illness not stated.

On Rats and Rabbits

Something historical today - a letter from Michael Halliwell, sent to but not published by the JEP.


To the Editor, Jersey Evening Post.
Sir,

It is wonderful that those of us who were evacuated from the Island in 1940 have been included in the splendid celebrations of t he 70th anniversary of the Liberation. From recent statements it is clear that a misunderstanding of the Bailiff’s recent speech has arisen. My father, having sent my mother and us four children to England, kept press cutting of some important events of the time. A look at the press reports of the time will make it possible to put the whole ‘rats’ story into its proper context.

On Thursday June 20th 1940 the States met for ‘another urgency sitting’, fully reported in the ‘Evening Post’. The Bailiff reported that he had been advised that farmers were turning their cattle loose and threatening to burn their crops. The Constable of St Saviour said a poultry farmer had called on him and told him that he had locked his poultry up and was leaving the Island. The Constables of St Peter and St Martin reported similar incidents.

The Attorney General then affirmed that all States and Parish officials should remain at their posts and the Bailiff made a solemn declaration that the States would repay any money which the British Government expended on the evacuation of people from Jersey to England.

Then Jurat Dorey, who had just returned ‘very tired’ from England on States’ business addressed the house. He recognised that certain categories of persons were desirous of leaving the Island, especially those going to ‘join up’. He then continued, as the Evening Post reported:

Speaking with deep emotion, Jurat Dorey said that that morning he had been filled with disgust; he could understand some people were desirous of going, but he did not understand those of old Norman stock, who should be rooted to the soil, pressing to leave. We were always a calm, steady people, who had jogged along in our own way loving our lands and our surroundings. He would like the House to express its utter contempt at what these people were doing (Applause) … Clearly the young men should be got away … Such men would be sent on a good mission and they should not be herded together with the rabbits and rats that were leaving otherwise. (Applause).

It is clear that the ‘rats and rabbits’ Jurat Dorey was speaking of were those farmers who were threatening to leave their animals and crops untended and quit the Island. That he was not fully understood at the time is seen from a subsequent intervention from Jurat Le Feuvre who said he objected to people being tarred with the same brush as Jurat Dorey had done. He had a son who was anxious to serve his country; ought he to keep him back. He had a daughter who was also desirous of serving the country; should she remain here. It was unfair to make such statements as had been made.

From the above it can be seen that the ‘rats and rabbits’ Jurat Dorey was speaking of were certain farmers who were cruelly abandoning their livestock, and not those of us who had good reasons to leave. Perhaps it is not surprising that in the heat of the moment Jurat Dorey’s plea was misunderstood. Hopefully the ‘rats and rabbits’ story can now be consigned to history and given a decent burial.

Your sincerely
(Canon) Michael Halliwell,