Guernsey occupation resistance plaque unveiled

The plaque at North Beach lists the names of seven individuals

People who resisted the Nazi occupation of Guernsey in World War Two have been remembered by a memorial plaque.

At least eight islanders died in prisons or detention camps or as a result of ill-treatment after being jailed for resistance.

Bailiff Sir Richard Collas unveiled the plaque near the Liberation Monument, at North Beach, St Peter Port.

It reads "dedicated to the memory of all Islanders who committed acts of protest, defiance and resistance".

It also lists the names of seven individuals: Charles Machon, Percy Miller, Marie Ozanne, Joseph Gillingham, Sidney Ashcroft, Louis Symes, and John Ingrouille. An eighth person died, but their family has asked for their details to be kept private.

Members of the wartime generation and families of some of those who died laid wreaths at the ceremony.

Among them was Jean Harris, whose father Joseph Gillingham was one of a number of islanders involved in the Guernsey Underground News Service (Guns).

It was a loose collection of people who secretly listened to BBC News, on home-built or radios they had not handed in, wrote the news down and shared it with other islanders.

Mrs Harris and her husband Alan have been integral in organising the plaque, which has been funded entirely by public donations.

The project has the backing of the Guernsey Deportees Association and was installed by the Culture and Leisure Department.