On this day in 1909

Roller skating took off in Jersey earlier than you might imagine. The Jersey Times reported that “a very large number of skaters took the floor [of the rink at the West Park Pavilion] and pursued the undeniably healthy winter pastime with much vigour and evident enjoyment”. Everything the skater could possibly need was supplied at the venue, and even members of the honorary police had “cast dignity to the winds” to join in.

 

...and on this day in 1924

When the occupying forces took over the Channel Islands, they finished the incomplete job of evacuating Alderney, and built four prison camps in the island. These housed primarily the slave labour force they imported from mainland Europe to build the concrete defences they constructed across the islands.

Two of the camps – Lager Borkum and Lager Helgoland – were work camps, but Lager Norderney and Lager Sylt were concentration camps, run by the SS. St Helier-born Gordon Prigent found himself in Norderney after refusing to paint German tanks, on account of the fact that he was, in fact, a plasterer. This was enough to mark him out as a troublemaker. He was arrested and deported to Alderney and, there, caught listening to the English news on the radio. He spent much of his time there cracking stones in the quarry, which were used to build gun emplacements.

The conditions were harsh, with meagre rations and long working hours that were sufficient to kill many of the older inmates.

Times get even harder

Towards the end of the war, when France had been liberated and supplies were running short, the occupying forces evacuated the remaining camp inmates to Guernsey and Jersey and, for a while, Prigent was incarcerated in the cells at Fort Regent. However, upon his release – and on the condition that he reported to the authorities every day – he found work as a volunteer policeman.