Bereaved mother's tree helped Jersey remember

Sunday 28 October 2018

From the garden of a war-time bereaved mother came a very special way of remembering Jersey's fallen soldiers, historians have explained as Jersey marks the 100th anniversary of the Armistice.

Jersey's War Cemetery was created in November 1943 as a resting place for the bodies of members of the Allied Forces recovered within the Bailiwick during the Second World War and was consecrated by the Dean of Jersey.

While its presence is a poignant reminder of the individuals who gave their lives during the war, the story of the creation of the cemetery is very special in itself. Jersey War Tunnels shed light on its history with Express...

"The Howard Davis Park location is a fitting one as the park was established by a local businessman to commemorate his son, Howard Davies, who died in the Battle of the Somme during the First World War.

Each grave is marked by an oak cross, created by Jersey craftsmen following the Liberation in 1945 from an oak tree presented by Lady Stewart, a local woman who lost her son in the First World War. 

Pictured: The cross in the cemetery were created by Jersey craftsmen following the Liberation in 1945.

After WWII the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) planned to replace the crosses with white headstones, but islanders and local authorities asked for the original wooden crosses to remain.

Admiral Sir Randolph Nicholson, the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey from 1963 to 1958, said of the local sentiment towards the cemetery: "I feel that this cemetery is more than a small war cemetery. It is to the islanders who lived here during the years of the German occupation an expression of something which they were able to do in spite of German interference when all other means of helping their country were denied to them. 

"As such, they cherish it, it’s something personal to the island, and maintain it with a care which I know would be appreciated by the relatives of those who lie there. As such, I feel that it should be preserved in the form in which it was originally laid out."

The Commission eventually agreed that the wooden crosses could stay and they still remain to this day. 

Pictured: The cemetery was created in November 1943 as a resting place for the bodies of members of the Allied Forces recovered within the Bailiwick during the Second World War.

The first men laid to rest in the cemetery were two RAF servicemen whose bodies were found in June 1943. Initially buried in another cemetery, they were brought to Jersey’s War Cemetery for re-burial with military honours. Islanders attended and stood silently as the German forces carried out the solemn ceremonies, including a salute fired by the German air force, the Luftwaffe. 

In total, 41 burials were carried out at the War Cemetery, including that of the bodies of servicemen washed up in Jersey following ‘Operation Tunnel.’ The naval action off the Brittany coast took place overnight on 22 and 23 October 1943. Two British vessels, the cruiser HMS Charybdis and the destroyer HMS Limbourne, were torpedoed and sunk by the Musterland, a German vessel escorted by six destroyers.  

More recently, the Channel Islands’ Occupation Society planted a row of silver birch trees alongside the burial ground. Each year, the cemetery is the focus of memorial ceremonies on Liberation Day, Battle of Britain and Remembrance Day."