Dressed in 1940s style, waving flags and singing patriotic songs, pupils and staff from Mont Nicolle and St Mary schools drew crowds of well-wishers when they reached King Street, who joined them to walk the final yards of their five-mile journey to finish with a community sing-song.
Mont Nicolle pupil Luke Osborne (11) said: ‘It was a lot of fun to do and support the Red Cross. It is really important to celebrate the Liberation and learn about the people who lived in the Occupation and the war.’
His head teacher, John Baudains, said the aim of the walk was to give the children an understanding of what it was like to live through the Occupation and then feel the joy of being liberated.
‘The children were incredible, they sang virtually all the way and when they got to King Street we had to keep stopping as people were gathering around us and joining in the singing.
‘The community spirit really helped people get through the Occupation and experiencing that community spirit today helped the children to understand their history, understand about their culture and community and about the place were they live. They were also raising money for the Red Cross and the people we met were really aware of the significance of the Red Cross to Jersey during the war and why we were raising money,’ he said.
For Milly Deacon (10) the walk was good practice for the important role she will play in the Grand Liberation Parade. She is one of a group of young parishioners chosen to carry the St Brelade flag.
‘My grandmother’s sister was evacuated to the UK, to Yorkshire I think. She has told me how she was really afraid on the way to the harbour and how scary it was,’ she said.
Fellow pupil, Ava Byrne (10), will be celebrating Liberation Day with her family by watching the re-enactment followed by a get-together with her relatives.
Today is very special to them as her great-grandfather, Frank Bonney, was one of the brave Islanders who escaped by boat to France.
Back at Mont Nicolle, the celebrations continued with a party where Jersey Wonders, bean crock and Occupation recipes were on the menu for a picnic on the playing field and another community sing-song.
However, the festivities paused as everyone listened to Winston Churchill’s VE Day speech and observed the two-minute silence.
In Trinity, pupils from the primary school joined the Constable, Phillip Le Sueur, to lay wreaths at the parish war memorial and the Ayton and Schiedhauer memorials. Capt Phillip Ayton was killed in a Commando raid on the north coast on Christmas night 1943, and Sous-Lieut Bernard Schiedhauer crashed his Spitfire in Trinity in 1942.
Afterwards parishioners who had lived through the Occupation joined pupils for a street party and a sing-along at the school.
