ITEMS of significant historical value from the estate of Lord Alexander Coutanche, the Bailiff during the Occupation, will be up for auction on Wednesday.
The collection of lots, from the Coutanche family residence at Clos des Tours, St Brelade, includes antique furniture, personal items such as luggage and leather suitcases and four rare clay maquettes by local artist Edmund Blampied.
Clos des Tours was built for Lord Coutanche and his future wife, Ruth Gore, in 1933, and the auction includes items from both families.
Lord Coutanche was born on 9 May 1892 and educated at Victoria College before reading law at Caen University. He trained in London and practised in Jersey from 1913. During the First World War, he worked in a munitions factory before being called to the English Bar in 1915.
He joined the British Army as a Lieutenant and, in 191,7 was posted to Belgium with the War Claims Commission, before returning to the Island where he resumed his legal practice. He went on to be elected as Deputy of St Helier, before becoming first Solicitor General, and then Attorney-General prior to his appointment as Bailiff in 1935. He held this position until he retired in 1961.
Serving as both Bailiff and acting Governor during the Occupation, he faced extraordinary challenges every day, maintaining Island life and dealing with the German authorities for almost five years. For this service he was knighted in 1946 and, in 1961, he was elevated to the House of Lords. He died in 1973.
Among the more personal items in the sale are travelling and uniform trunks and dressing cases, many inscribed with names or initials. Some come with travel labels, such as Himalaya, or a pair of toboggans marked Davos and St Moritz, evocative of a bygone era.
The Coutanche collection sale takes place on Wednesday at Martel Maides Auctions in Guernsey.
