Permanent tribute to Island Games hero unveiled

Friday 30 June 2023

A permanent tribute to the legacy of the Island Games has been unveiled in Guernsey in front of the family of a man who was a driving force behind its success.

Following the first iteration of the Games in the Isle of Man 1985, Owen Le Vallee stood up and said Guernsey would host the next event and his name has been synonymous with it ever since.

Two granite benches with sporting figures etched on them have been placed at Footes Lane with the athletics track as a fitting backdrop.

Mr Le Vallee died aged 95 in January. 

"These benches will be a tribute"

Guernsey Island Games Association president Brian Allen told those gathered at Footes Lane that even last year he had been advising the International Island Games Association what it should do.

“These benches will be a tribute to the Island Games, a permanent tribute showing everybody the legacy for the islands,” said Mr Allen.

“The second point of these benches is obviously in memory of our Owen Le Vallee."

Pictured: Owen Le Vallee's relatives - granddaughters' Helene Le Vallee, Claire McCarey, Jacquie Hewitt, grandson Chris Le Vallee and granddaughter-in-law Lianne Queripel.

He continued: “The final thing about these benches is that it's a permanent reminder of the importance of sponsorship for sport on Guernsey.

"It’s incredible how many people in Guernsey help sport and so many things and it is a tribute to Utmost who have sponsored the Guernsey team for the past 10 years. That's an incredible length of time. It's the lifetime of some people's athletics careers.”

"You just couldn't have asked for anything better"

Mr Le Vallee’s grandson, Chris Le Vallee, said he was speechless when the bench was unveiled.

It symbolised a lot about his grandad, who had spent many, many hours at Footes Lane, he said.

“The engraving of all the sports, you just couldn't have asked for anything better. It's definitely not what we thought it's going to be, it’s so much more. I think I'll be here quite a few times.”

Chris said he had shed a few tears during the build up to this year’s Games because of his family’s connection.

"He absolutely dedicated his life to sports"

“It was his life, even when he retired officially from the committee, he was still there. He was still inputting.

"He was a very stubborn man, so he was on the phone to the Committee saying, ‘I think we should do this, I think we should do that,’  just up until the day he passed away.

"He absolutely dedicated his life to sports in Guernsey.”

Artistic inspiration from Greece

Artist Mark Cook designed the benches and had wanted to produce something that looked at the way that art and sport was linked. 

“It has always been historically linked. There's been lots of artists who have produced work that's based on sports and sporting activities, but the classic is always the ancient Greeks. So what I wanted was something that looked like a Grecian freeze going across.”

As part of his research for the project he found out that until the 1950s there was an art component of the modern Olympics, disciplines like architecture, poetry and literature.

One of the last English people to win an Olympic medal in an art competition was John Copley, at 73 he was also the oldest, for etching in 1948.

Benches to "unify people"

Granite Le Pelley produced the bench, with plenty of discussions about what would work and what would not.

Pictured: The bench was produced by Granite Le Pelley.

A digital template was turned into a stencil that was used to create the etching.

“I think it's really important that Owen is remembered and these are permanent, they're going to be forever and people are going to wander up, read the side, wonder, ‘who is that person?’ in a few years time and hopefully then find out a bit about the Island Games.” 

Leon Steyn, CEO of Utmost International in Guernsey, said it was keen to leave a legacy after a decade of sponsoring the Guernsey Team.

“We're trying to sponsor everybody through these Games. That's a great way of unifying a community. I also think these benches will unify people. I hope people sit there, have a chat, talk to each other.”