Hedley Hindult is age 93. He was living in Jersey during the German occupation. Hedley was accompanied to the talk with partner Joyce De La Haye (maiden name Blanchet) , who also witnessed the German occupation on the Channel Islands.

When Hedley was talking to us about his memories he stated that it was hard to remember everything because he was only 14 at the time of the occupation, but even now when he thinks or talks about it he gets upset, due to how hard and scary it was. He then proceeded in saying that he left school at the age of 14, which was very normal in those days and worked on his fathers farm as a herdsman for a cattle of 20-25, which was his main responsibility on the farm. Every farmer at that time was compelled to grow wheat on the acres of land they had, so they could make bread for the locals, along with the German soldiers. Hedley made it aware to use not only did his fathers farm grow wheat and herd cattle, they also made cider. After he told us this, he then continued to tell us a story that he remembers when working on the farm. That one day as young solider around 20 was at the farm to count the wheat after it had been stacked. He said that the solider was a nice man who was always smiling. But Hedley has seen the German looking at the cider barrels and offered the man a drink, and the solider was obviously not going to decline so he nodded and Hedley produced. The solider drank it down quickly that Hedley kept offering him drink after drink. Hedley then went back to his cattle to finish off his jobs, to when his father found the solider lying flat down, this is when they had all realised that he got so drunk that he passed out. So they used this too their advantage and kept a few barrels of wheat behind for themselves. Ever since that happened the Germans would always send 2 soldiers.

After Hedley had told us this story, he carried on talking about life during that time. He said that everyone use to speak Jèrriais , this is because the Germans wouldn’t be able to understand what they were saying. Along with talking about Jèrriais , he told us he has a daughter who use to speak fluent Jèrriais but now no longer speaks it.

Joyce said she couldn’t remember much alike Hedley but she was able to recall small events. She said she would walk to school everyday, which was about a mile and quarter, at the age of 6, but she would be barefoot as shoes where a privilege in those times of the occupation. She said that you weren’t allowed on the beach, to go fishing, that everything was under control by the Germans. They were given food parcels that came from Canada, every family got one Joyce mentioned but it was only the necessities they got, but everyone in the community helped each other out. At such a young age, she said she had to create her own fun with her friends, but it was hard with a German post every half a mile, but she mentioned that parishes would put on dances as a means of entertainment, however with this said the Islanders has curfews throughout the year, during winter is was 10pm and summer 9pm and you couldn’t get away with being late as it was definite you would be passing a German post at some point on your way home and if you were caught you would have you registration card take off you.

On the day of liberation Joyce was at home with her family as it was too far to travel into St Helier. But Hedley was a bell ringer in his local church, he rung the bells between 9am-1pm and after that he went with his girlfriend at the time to St Helier, but he said you couldn’t really see anything due to the mass crowds.