Any fears that this year’s Liberation Day celebrations would pale in significance compared to last year’s 60th anniversary and the Royal visit have been dismissed by the organiser, Owen Wiscombe.
‘The preparations for Liberation 2006 are now complete and with the weather looking fair it is guaranteed to be another very entertaining and slightly nostalgic morning of events,’ he said.
The Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache, will lead the Island’s official celebration from 9.30 am starting with the special States sitting and moving on to Liberation Square where the new Dean of Jersey, the Very Rev Bob Key, will conduct his first Liberation Day service, before hundreds of Islanders – deportees, ex-internees, war veterans and those who lived through the darkest period of Jersey’s history.
The special guests will include Carlos Miranda Count of Casa Miranda and Ambassador of Spain, and the Air Attaché from the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Col Alexey Korkach, who have been invited to Jersey to take part in the Slave Workers Memorial Ceremony at Westmount at 3 pm.
The Liberation Day service will be followed at 10.25 by the re-enactment of Liberation, when the Union Flag will be draped from the old Harbour Office window and then hoisted onto the balcony of the Pomme d’Or Hotel, before it is finally flown from the main flag staff at Fort Regent.
