WATCH: Orphaned at six..plane crash victims' daughter remembers tragedy 80 years on

Thursday 25 October 2018

A Jersey woman who lost both her parents in a plane crash 80 years ago has shared her memories of what it was like to be tragically orphaned at just six years old.

Islander Rosemary Blampied is the daughter of Major Gerald Hazzard Voisin and Ruby Eleanor Voisin (née King), who were both killed in the 1938 disaster at Jersey Airport when a plane plummeted into a field shortly after taking off.

Referred to as the 'Jersey Airport Disaster', the devastating 1938 event is one of the most serious plane crashes on British territory in history.

Mrs Blampied told Express what she remembers of the tragedy…

Video: Rosemary Blampied shared her story with Express.

Being just six years old at the time, Mrs Blampied says she sadly doesn’t have any memories of her parents, but her older siblings can remember them. 

She told Express that her parents were travelling to their niece’s christening in Shoreham as they had been asked to be her godparents. Mrs Blampied and her older brother and sister were being looked after by their grandmother whilst their parents were away.

“I don’t remember them at all. They were never spoken about. My grandmother felt guilty because she thought that if she hadn’t offered to look after us they wouldn’t have gone."

The plane took off on the morning of 4 November 1938. However, soon after taking off, it plummeted and crashed into a field close to the Airport. The pilot, all 12 passengers onboard, as well as a farmhand who was working in the field, were killed. There were no survivors.

Although she was incredibly young at the time, Mrs Blampied can vividly recollect the day she found out that she was an orphan.

Pictured: Rosemary Blampied, whose parents died in the 1938 Jersey Airport Disaster, told Express what it was like to be orphaned at such a young age.

“We were all at school at Mont Cantel – my sister was up at the college by then. A senior Voisins van driver called Mr Querée, who was someone we all liked very, very much, came to the school and told us we would all go home at lunchtime.

“My sister objected because she said that only I went home for lunchtime! [Mr Querée] took us to our grandmother’s house in Midvale Road and we were told by my grandmother and her sisters about the crash.

“I remember crying and sitting on one of the great aunt’s knees. The Doctor came in and asked [if] he should take the bodies to the hospital and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, they’re not dead’, but they were of course.”

Mrs Blampied explained that she and her siblings lived with their grandmother for a short while before they moved back to their family home with a governess called Miss Wallace. 

“Our grandmother thought we would be better off in our own home in the country rather than in town with her. She wanted us to grow up in the countryside – we were used to being outdoors, climbing trees and doing everything country children do.” 

Although they were being looked after by Miss Wallace, Mrs Blampied remembers they were never allowed to get too close to her. “This lady was fantastic and she stayed with us until my brother got married, [but] we weren’t allowed to get too affectionate. We weren’t allowed to call her ‘auntie’ or anything.”

However, the Voisin children weren’t back in their family home for long before another tragedy struck: the Occupation. Just two years after losing their parents, they were taken to Wales in 1940.

“I remember standing at the Harbour before we were evacuated and I was terrified – I’d never been on a boat before.” 

Pictured: Rosemary and her father before the 1938 crash.

Despite her trepidation, Mrs Blampied reflected somewhat fondly on their five years spent in Brecon, Wales: “Maybe the move helped us in a way… We didn’t know there was a war on! I suppose the grown-ups did but I didn’t… Our life was great.”

When asked if the upheaval of the war meant she didn’t properly process her parents’ death, Mrs Blampied said: “I think we probably didn’t, [but] back then there wasn’t this concept of ‘processing’. Things just happened and you just got on with it!”