Meeting at the Société Jersiaise were some of the cast members invited to watch as the original score, libretto and other mementoes of a light opera called The Paladins were handed over for future safe keeping.
It was in October 1943 that the opera, composed by Philip G Larbalestier and written by Horace Wyatt, took to the stage after it was surprisingly given the go-ahead by the German censor.
But the Jersey Green Room Club production contained a controversial song with the words ‘Faithful and free, Faithful and free, Sure as the pulse of the tides of the sea.
That beating around her, For ages have found her, Strong to stand, Motherland, Faithful and free.’ As word got around the Island that these words were being sung every night – even before German officers watching from the back – the theatre was filled at all performances.
