Major Marie Ozanne

The staff of the Library would like to thank Steven Spencer, Archivist & Deputy Director of the Salvation Army International Heritage Centre, William Booth College, for supplying us copies of some of the letters Major Marie Ozanne wrote to the German Commandant of Guernsey during the Occupation. In these she offers to take the place of people arrested for resistance, for example, to be executed instead of another, and begs to be allowed to preach and open the Salvation Army Halls, which had been closed down by the Germans. Her brother Major Ozanne had sent the letters to support the recommendation that she be awarded posthumously the Army's prestigious Order of the Founder.

A recent publication, Protest, defiance and resistance in the Channel Islands: German Occupation, 1940-45, Bloomsbury Academic 2014, includes a chapter 'Women and Resistance', written by Louise Wilmot, which discusses Major Marie Ozanne and her activities and death in Guernsey during the Occupation. This book and the letters can be consulted in the Library.

We have also received from the International Heritage Centre copies of the diaries of Joseph Griffith, Commandant of L'Islet Corps of the Salvation Army, for the years 1940-44, and acompanying biographical material.