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Newly-released records have revealed how an eyepatch-wearing French serial thief and his wife were sentenced to a year’s hard labour and banished from Jersey for stealing sheets, aprons and nighties.
The crimes were committed in 1917, and was one of many to be revealed by Jersey Archive on 1 January, as it opened scores of records to the public for the first time in over 100 years.
Among the 300 documents to be made public at the turn of the New Year, which marks 75 years since the Liberation, was the Political Prisoners register, containing details of over 500 islanders’ acts of defiance against the German Authorities during the Occupation.
Pictured: The records were released by Jersey Archive after their exemption periods under the Freedom of Information Law came to an end.
Other newly-opened records include the 1919 hospital admission register; police arrest registers; witness depositions in criminal cases; and Committee minute books.
Jersey Archive shared some of the top stories hidden in the records…
Paul Lozouet and his wife Maria (née Giard), who were both in their 60s, were arrested in October 1917 for stealing towels, nightgowns, shirts, aprons and other linen from five different homes in Dicq Road.
Pictured: Paul Lozouet's registration card.
They couple were sentenced in the Royal Court to one month’s hard labour and five years’ banishment.
The records suggest that the pair had been struggling financially at the time, as the Jersey General Hospital Register shows Maria entering the hospital on 21 November “for reasons of poverty” while her husband was in jail.
In 1918, four teens - François Henri Bouhaire, Edwin John Mauger, Louis Eugene Jean Fossey, Jean Charles Chilard and Celestin Louis Fosse – were arrested after a weekend-long rampage, which included killing four chickens and letting out pigs.
Their crimes, which spanned three pages of the Honorary Police Register, also included: committing a “nuisance” at the gate of a St. Saviour’s Road property, throwing mud at a house, stealing cider from a farm, demolishing a wall, putting logs in a road, breaking a two-wheeled cart, throwing a woman’s skirt and shawl into the road, breaking into a greenhouse and smashing pots and flowers, and breaking seven apple trees.
Pictured: The teens killed chickens during their criminal rampage.
Francois, Louis and Edwin were sentenced to one month’s hard labour, with Jean and Celestin given lesser sentences of a fine or two to four days in prison.
44-year-old Thomas Bailey was given eight days in prison for driving his cart at a dangerous speed under the influence of alcohol, then “grossly insulting” and threatening St. Saviour Vingtenier, Philippe Ozouf.
According to the Political Prisoners Register, two of the youngest individuals sent to prison Prison during the Occupation were schoolgirls Beryl Wickings (14) and Kathleen Duckworth (15) for “political offences”.
Pictured: The identity document of Beryl Wickings (14).
They were liberated after just one night in prison.
But 15-year-old Marcel Auger wasn’t as lucky when convicted of theft – he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, then sent to France in 1942.
Pictured: Kathleen Duckworth (15), who was one of the island's youngest political prisoners.
16-year-old William West was arrested in 1908 for stealing £1 from Richard Lewis Bryant, who lived in a house which was dependant on Government House.
He was sent to court on the same day, but fortunately acquitted of the charges.
Of all of Jersey’s political prisoners during the Occupation, the longest sentence was given to Philip George Ozard.
In May 1942, he was sentenced to five years in prison for unauthorised possession of weapons. Philip was sent to Caen prison in France in 1942 and was then transferred on to Germany where he was at Neuoffingen Forced Labour Camp until 9 May 1944.
Pictured: Philip Ozard's registration card.
He was finally liberated by American Forces from Landsberg Prison on 30 April 1945. Philip returned to Jersey and lived in the Island until his death in 1969.
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