24th August 2015
'The evolution of an aeroplane designed, built and flown in the Channel Islands.' A cutting from the magazine Flying, January 3, 1934, written by local journalist and aviation enthusiast, Basil C de Guérin, in his Scrapbook 1919-1934, p. 91, in the Library. The photograph, from the Guernsey Press, shows the aeroplane ready for a test flight on Vazon in September 1933, with its designer and builder C W Noel at the controls. The Library has just received a very interesting donation from a descendant of Harry Kaines, who was one of the builders of the Wee Mite. The scrapbook contains cuttings and several fine photographs. The plane eventually crashed and was written off; its story is told by Bill Green in his autobiography, Guernsey Green.
11th August 2015
From the Star, July 11 1944 & July 13 1944. By 'Linesman.' The beginnings of Guernsey's link with Tottenham Hotspur. The 1948 match program is from the Library's collection. Ted Zabiela ran the White Hart Hotel (which he must have named after White Hart Lane); his 'proudest moment was in 1946 when he procured for the Spurs the signature of Len Duquemin, the centre-forward who was to bring such honour to the island by his brilliant record both as a player and as a sportsman of the highest order (Guernsey Evening Press, February 5 1960).' Islander Len Duquemin was Spurs' leading goalscorer that year.
5th August 2015
Businesses come and go in the world of high-speed commerce, but the 'Closing Down Sale' notice in the window of a long-established island concern always involves a little nostalgia, a little sadness, for someone. So it is with the shoe business of A W Collenette and Son, one of the Town shops which islanders have come to take for granted. From the Guernsey Press, c. 1969. [Scrapbook No 24, Staff F, p. 153.]
4th August 2015
Two albums of footballers, with a few other sports thrown in for good measure. Supplemented by a donation (November 2019). Please contact the Library for futher information.
28th July 2015
The Société Guernesiaise tried its hardest to persuade the authorities to preserve this ancient structure, but to no avail. From the Star, January 1933. The photograph is from the Library Collection. It was taken by Edith Carey in 1929 and shows the water pump in Cornet Street which drew from the well of the Tour Beauregard, and which was demolished along with the water tower in 1933.
23rd July 2015
Old Court House again. From the Star, June 20, 1944. The photograph, from the Library collection, shows the house in 1861, ten years before the construction of the Avenue led to its demolition.
26th June 2015
From La Gazette de Guernesey, 15 February 1913. The Primary School and the Infants'; the spelling of the names is a little variable!
26th June 2015
The observations of a French legal expert published in La Gazette de Guernesey, 28 June 1913. 'One can never be quick enough to put right an injustice, and it is unjust to exclude women from undertaking public duties.' Jurat F J Jeremie's was but a lone voice, and duly ignored.
25th June 2015
Winston Churchill visits the island. From La Gazette de Guernesey, 30 August 1913. The photograph from the Star shows him landing at the White Rock and in conversation with Colonel Macartney, Government Secretary.
16th June 2015
Chapter 47 of Les Soeurs des Saints Coeurs de Jésus et de Marie, by the Abbé A Leroy, Rennes: Simon. The foundation of the first Catholic primary schools in Guernsey. [The boarding school in the 1913 advertisement shown above was in Cordier Hill, but was run by a different order. For the history of this order, the Sisters of Mercy, in Guernsey, founded from Brighton, Sussex, and prominent in the education of islanders, see the Centenary Souvenir (1868-1968), in the Library collection. They acquired Blanchelande in 1956 from the Sisters des Saints Coeurs.]
