The Bailiff’s Occupation and Liberation files provide a detailed record of the administration in the Island during the war.
Over the past year, the staff at Jersey Archive have digitised the entire collection – comprising more than 3,000 files and nearly 40,000 pages – which is now available to view via the Archives and Collections Online catalogue.
‘It has been an absolute privilege to have worked on such an important project, bringing these documents online for everyone to read,’ said Debbie Reynolds, digitisation officer at Jersey Heritage. ‘I was struck by the vast array of subjects, but mostly the personal stories of people writing to the Bailiff asking for help when other avenues had been in vain.’
The then-Bailiff, Sir Alexander Coutanche, acted as a buffer between Islanders and occupying forces.
The project has been facilitated through funding from the Association of Jersey Charities and the Channel Islands Lottery, as well as the support of the Bailiff’s Chambers.
The Association of Jersey Charities funding has also enabled any Islanders who are not ACO subscribers to have two weeks of free access to the collection until 28 February at jerseyheritage.org/aco.
Michele Leerson, Jersey Heritage’s online development manager, commented: ‘The project has enabled us to ensure the long-term preservation of the originals of one of Jersey’s most valuable archive collections, while making the documents available online to Islanders and a worldwide audience and enhancing the story of Jersey’s unique occupation history.
‘The collection had been earmarked for preservation and digitisation for some time and we were delighted to receive the funding from the Association of Jersey Charities to enable this to go ahead, particularly in 2020, which marked the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of our Island.’
