The centenarian recalled the tense moment she found herself in the Royal Square, past the German-enforced curfew, at her 100th birthday celebrations this week.
‘You had to be home by 10 pm and I had been at my friend’s whose clock must have been set wrongly,’ Miss Manning said.
‘I lived in St Saviour’s Road at the time – there was a big hotel around there at the time and a lot of Germans stayed there. If they found you outside past curfew they would not ask you what you were doing, they would thrust a bayonet at you and order you in to the back of a lorry. I was petrified.
‘I prayed to God and said “I need you” and began walking up King Street and got all the way up to St Saviour’s Road near Grosvenor Street.
‘I then made my way along St Saviour’s Road and made my way back to my house without seeing a single German. God did not want me dead at that time.’
Miss Manning, who claims that she has never needed to see a doctor, says happiness is the secret to a long and healthy life.
Asked if she thought Jersey had changed for the better during her 100 years, she said that she liked how the Island had become more diverse, but did not like how much it has been developed.
