Hanois lighthouse keepers stranded
The lighthouse keepers on Les Hanois were cut off for more than a fortnight this week in 1961, when bad weather left them isolated. Eventually the Royal Navy had to be drafted in to fly across emergency supplies of fuel and food. Over the course of six flights they delivered coke for heating, mail and forty barrels of fresh water. A shower at last!
Channel 4 gameshow Treasure Hunt came to Guernsey and Herm this week in 1984 . We won’t say exactly where Anneka Rice visited, since that would be a spoiler, which would be a shame as you can watch the full episode online, but there was a lot of criss-crossing of Little Russell, and the show kicked off from Brehon Tower.
A Guernsey-built prototype plane crashed on Vazon this week in 1935. The remains of Wee Mite, as it was then known, were stored until the occupation, when they were shipped to Germany to stop anyone using them to escape.
Benefactor Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx died this week in 1891. He will be best remembered for donating the Candie Estate to the island, along with his extensive collection of books and a grant of £10,000 to fund a free library for public use.
Doctor Who travelled to Guernsey this week in 1996 in a story called Just War. Set during the period when the Doctor was played by Sylvester McCoy, the story focused on the occupying forces' development of a stealth bomber, which the RAF was trying to destroy. Although it never appeared on television, the story was published in book form and, three years later, was adapted as an audio play.
A cargo vessel was wrecked at Perelle this week in 1974. The 18 crew who lost their lives when MV Prosperity ran aground are named on a memorial stone on the headland at L’Eree, and part of the ship’s engine block remains semi-submerged in the waters close by. Prosperity had been carrying a cargo of timber at the time and was holed below the waterline. When she started taking on water, the crew was forced to abandon ship but their lifeboat was overcome by the waves. Two of their bodies were never recovered.
Guernsey’s Royal Court sat for the first time this week in 1803 after some time spent working out of Elizabeth College. Prior to moving to its original site, it was so pressed for space that the greffiers had been obliged to keep the island’s valuable records in their own homes. The land on which it was built was sold to the States by William Le Marchant, who just happened to have been the Bailiff at the time.
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