AN Islander who has left such a mark on Jersey that she has a health centre named after her is urging people to vote next month.
Enid Quenault – who has witnessed the Island evolve from occupied fortress to cosmopolitan finance centre – said that she hoped as many people as possible would help to shape the next States Assembly on Sunday 7 June.
She said: “If you do not vote, then you do not have the same interest in key matters that come up – and there have been some quite strong, stupendous propositions that have come through, such as assisted dying and abortion.”
The active nonagenarian remains fully across political issues, especially those in St Brelade, a parish she represented as Deputy and Constable for 24 years.
It is in recognition of this long service that the former Les Quennevais School building is now the Enid Quenault Health and Wellbeing Centre.
Mrs Quenault is also enthusiastic about the value of politics and supportive of the 92 candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring and can currently be found halfway up lampposts, knocking on doors, handing out leaflets and attending hustings.
This is because she has seen the transformative effect of politics, particularly at the hands of some of the States Members who were in the Assembly when she joined in 1975: people like John Le Marquand, Cyril Le Marquand and Ralph Vibert.
She said: “I hear that a lot of people are not planning to vote this year but they should do because it is their Island and they need to have a voice – and a vote – in what is being discussed on their behalf. There seems to be a lot of apathy, and it does worry me.
“Some people think that a Sunday election might be better but if people want to vote, they will. One hears of a lot of dissatisfaction with different things but there is always a danger of talking yourself down.
“I think we are lucky to be living in this Island, with all its faults. Jersey remains a wonderful and safe place. Of course, there were faults when I was in the States, but we had good leaders then.”
Their leadership is, in part, one of the reasons why Mrs Quenault is fully supportive of a call to review the system of ministerial government, 20 years after it was introduced.
She said: “I have long thought that we need to look again at this ministerial system, because I don’t find it is fulfilling all that it meant to be. With the old committee system, everyone, more or less, had a job to do.
“Now, in this system, the politicians have not got the responsibility that they could have, and they could be doing a lot more.
“Before, you had a committee of seven, and the president had six people to consult when he or she wanted to propose something, and they had a good discussion around the table. The president knew that if the committee supported the proposition, there was a good chance that it would go through.
“Now you have the minister, the assistant minister and civil servants. They do not share the elected person’s viewpoint in the same way as the committee system did.”
She added: “The civil service inevitability has more influence over policy with just a couple of ministers. Yes, there is a Council of Ministers but they are there to set the strategy rather than focus on a particular proposition.
“The committee system encouraged much more input; it was consensus politics and everyone did their homework. If they did not, it soon became apparent.
“With the current system, clearly some people like being ministers but it is a different role all together. We made sure that, after the election, everyone in the States Assembly had a job, whether it was on a minor committee or one of the bigger ones. No one was left feeling that they were not involved.”
She continued: “I know there is Scrutiny but it is not quite the same as discussing policy. After all, their reports can be accepted or rejected by the government.
“Of course, good decisions are still made today but it is that lack of input from those who have been elected to govern that matters.”
“Everyone has been elected, even if it is by a few votes but they have still been chosen to do the job of governing so should be involved.
“We had our disagreements, but they were sorted out at committee. Members could talk against a proposal if they wanted but, usually, we would try to sort it out beforehand.”
Mrs Quenault spent 24 years in the Assembly, 12 years as a St Brelade Deputy and 12 years as Constable.
In those days, one usually received a deputation from parish elders asking you to stand and, in Mrs Quenault’s case, it came from Constable John Chévalier, who suggested she run as Deputy for the newly created St Brelade Number 2 district. She took up the challenge and became the eighth woman to be elected to the States Assembly.
A dozen years later she became the second female to become Constable after Iris Le Feuvre in St Lawrence.
Mrs Quenault served as president of the Broadcasting Committee and vice-president of the Education Committee. She also sat on Health and Housing. She was the second
Her father, Arthur Quérée, had been Deputy of St Ouen and her brother, also Arthur, was Constable of that parish and later a Jurat. Her daughter, Anne Pryke, served as the Deputy for Trinity between 2005 and 2018, and went on to become the Island’s Health Minister.
Before being elected, Mr Quenault stood on several sub-committees, which you were allowed to sit on as a lay member, including housing. She also sat on the Rent Tribunal, which was chaired by former Bailiff Sir Robert Le Masurier when she joined. Another member was AP Laurent, the last basket maker in the Island who might be best described as a left-leaning man of the people.
Mrs Quenault’s mark on St Brelade is not just on the side of a health centre; she was instrumental in getting the footpath created down La Marquanderie, linking Les Quennevais to St Brelade’s Bay, and the extra lane to help northbound cars turn in to Les Quennevais Parade was also her doing.
She said: “I loved it being a politician although it was, of course, hard work because there was always something you could do.
“When we were first elected, we were told where we would sit and then given a folder with all the different propositions which still had not been debated, and that was it. We were not told anything about how it works or where things were or anything at all.
“Today, there is a far more organised welcome; back then, they just assumed that if you put yourself up for election, you knew how it worked. I was lucky because my father had been in the States so I knew a bit about it.
“He had retired by the time I stood but he did encourage me. That said, St Ouen is a very different parish to St Brelade.”
Mrs Quenault stressed that the States Assembly could do with more business leaders and recalls Senator Clarence Dupré, who was a fishmonger who would return to work during the Assembly lunchbreak.
She said: “You would see him standing in front of his shop in his apron talking to people about their problems, and in the afternoon, you could smell fish in the Chamber.
“There was a good atmosphere. There was not the back biting that there seems to be now; although I don’t know because I’m not in it. But I hear people say there is, which is such a shame. Hopefully, this next Assembly will be more cohesive.”
As well as politics, Mrs Quenault followed her father’s footsteps in being a Methodist lay preacher and has been actively involved in the church her whole life. She is also an author, having co-written ‘St. Brelade Jersey: A Portrait of the Twentieth Century’, which is a history of the parish complete with photos and archival material.
She said: “My Christian faith has been a great strength to me and I owe a great debt of gratitude to my husband for all his support and love he gave me.”
