Guernsey enters Miss World contest
PLUS: Planes crash in Sark and Crevichon + Sark in the music charts
Guernsey enters Miss World
Guernsey participated in the Miss World pageant for the first time this week in 1974. Gina Elizabeth Ann Atkinson represented the island, but did not win the competition.
The event was held at London's Royal Albert Hall and watched by around 30 million people. The competition was won by Welsh competitor Helen Morgan, but when it was later discovered that she had had a child, she resigned and the title passed to Anneline Kriel of South Africa.
Sark in the music charts
Enya's eighth studio album, Dark Sky Island, was named in honour of Sark, which had been designated as a dark sky island ideal for star-gazing a few years before its release, this week in 2015. The title track was the first song she wrote for the album and is filled with references to waves, boats, twilight, and the moon.
Sark was designated a dark-sky preserve on January 31, 2011, and was the first island to be added to the international list of dark sky locations. Sark built an observatory to raise funds, which officially opened in October 2015, just one month before Enya released her album.
The Sark Astronomy Society had the pre-fabricated building shipped from Norfolk and constructed it close to the centre of the island by three volunteers. It was officially opened by Dr. Marek Kukula, the public astronomer from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
Planes crash on Sark and Crevichon
A German Heinkel He 111 aircraft crashed on Crevichon this week in 1940, while on a bombing mission to England. The exact cause of the crash is unknown, but it is believed that the plane was already losing height as it flew over Jethou.
In an attempt to shed weight, it dropped the bomb that was destined for London, which landed on Jethou's Old Cottage. The plane continued its dive until it hit Jethou's close neighbour, killing the crew upon impact.
The Heinkel He 111 was a fast bomber that Germany had been producing since 1934, and it remained in production for 10 years, with the last one rolling out of the factory in 1944.
Two years later, almost to the day, a Lancaster bomber of the 49 Squadron crashed in Sark. The plane had been returning from a raid on Stuttgart when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire, causing one engine and part of the fuselage to catch fire.
Four members of the crew bailed out, leaving the pilot and two others to land the plane. Without navigational instruments, they made a miscalculation and landed on enemy-occupied Sark. The crew was taken to a prison in Germany the next day. The story of the hard landing is recorded on the 49 Squadron Association website.
Guernsey radios confiscated
German forces confiscated all private radios in Guernsey this week in 1940. This was not the first time radios had been taken; two years earlier, they had been confiscated after Guernsey-born Hubert Nicolle, the first Commando, became stranded in the island gathering information.
The Germans wanted to control the flow of information, which was impossible when local residents were able to hear news from other sources. Moreover, the troops were dissatisfied with what they heard, and their commanders wanted to limit the impact of bad news on morale.
However, some residents hung on to their radios despite the risk this entailed. The Guernsey Underground News Sheet (GUNS), which was established later in the occupation, distributed summaries of the BBC news that had been gathered by a team of illicit radio listeners. Unfortunately, the team behind the news-sheet was betrayed, arrested, and deported to prisons in mainland Europe.
Guernsey recruits cause mainland concern
This week in 1916, as World War I was raging, two recruits to the Royal Court in Guernsey caused concern in the British Parliament.
The MP for Croydon, Ian Malcolm, asked the Home Secretary whether two young men of military age had been appointed by the Royal Court, despite the fact that their duties could be competently performed by men over military age or by women. The Home Secretary confirmed that one of the men was unfit for any form of military service, while the case concerning the other was before the Guernsey Tribunal, which would decide whether he should be enrolled in the army.
Guernsey had passed a Compulsory Military Service Bill on August 23, 1916, requiring all men of military age to report for duty as soon as it became law. The Bill came into force on November 16, 1916, and all male British subjects in any of the islands within the Bailiwick, aged between 18 and 41, would be automatically enrolled in the army or navy 30 days later.
Sark widows can inherit
This week in 1999, Sark's female residents were given equal inheritance rights to men, after 400 years of feudal law that dictated that a deceased's estate could only pass to his or her eldest son upon their death. The change was largely driven by the Barclay brothers, owners of the Telegraph newspaper and Ritz Hotel, who had threatened to take the island to the European court of human rights to challenge the status quo.
Sark's Chief Pleas debated the change for almost two hours before voting on it, and two-thirds of the island's representatives concurred. This was the first change in a series of amendments to the way Sark operated over the next few years, the most notable of which was a move away from feudalism and a broader acceptance of democracy.