26th February 1951
Gerald Durrell marries the woman who will help him found his zoo
Jacquie Wolfenden was a trained opera singer, and the daughter of a Manchester hotel owner, in whose establishment Durrell stayed at the end of an expedition. It was there that they met and started a relationship that culminated in marriage on 26 February 1951
They founded Jersey Zoo together and, with Durrell’s author brother, Lawrence, she encouraged him to write the series of world-famous books that detailed his adventures collecting animals. However, the stress of both his alcoholism and his increasing workload eventually drove them apart. They divorced in 1979, and Gerald married Lee Wilson later the same year.
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Other events that occured in February
States treasurer is charged with embezzlement
- Jersey States treasurer was charged with embezzlement following the collapse of the Jersey Banking Company in 1886.
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Safe-breaking results in a Jersey arrest
- Three men appeared in court after being arrested in Jersey on charges of using explosives to rob a safe at the Co-op.
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Jersey’s courts are criticised for leaving a man in limbo
- A man was left in limbo for two years after being accused of rape but unable to face a court to argue his case.
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Surrealist artist Marcel Moore commits suicide
- Marcel Moore was born Suzanne Alberte Malherbe, in Nantes, in 1892. She moved to Jersey in 1937 with her partner, Claude Cahun.
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