7th April 1934
An attempted elopement fails
In the 1930s, it simply wasn’t done to get married without first obtaining your father’s permission. Ada Maud West learned that the hard way when, in 1934, she was intercepted by police upon arrival in Jersey.
The 19-year-old had fallen in love with 25-year-old Edward Fray, a colleague at the cinema where they both worked. When he got a job in Jersey and announced that he was leaving, the two made the decision to elope. They bought tickets for the midnight sailing of the Southern Railway Company’s steamer, Isle of Sark, and she hid in a cabin until they were underway.
The police were waiting
However, someone at the cinema had let slip, and her father, discovering what they were up to, had hurried to Southampton docks to retrieve her. Unable to find her onboard, he had no choice but to disembark before it set sail, so called ahead to Jersey so that police could be standing by when the steamer arrived.
They intercepted the pair, split them up and took the girl directly to the airport. She was put on the next flight to Southampton Municipal Aerodrome to be met by both of her parents. Whether the pair were ever reunited is not recorded in the papers of the time. Neither was Ada West’s reaction when she was greeted by her mother and father and escorted to their waiting car.
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Other events that occured in April
First Jersey Royals are exported to London
- Jersey new potatoes only found fame on the mainland after the first shipment went on sale in Covent Garden on 16 April 1859.
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The St Saviour wireless case show trial
- By 1943, the war was turning against Germany, and its forces realised they needed to control the flow of information. They banned radios.
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Condor 1 undergoes final sea trials
- The Condor 1 hydrofoil went into service just a week after its final sea trials in choppy waters around Jersey in April 1964.
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Civil partnerships are legalised
- It took civil partnerships almost three years to become legal in Jersey after they had been debated and approved by the States.
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