June

A Portuguese woman was banished from Jersey during the 1960s for being an unmarried mother despite having widespread support from her employer and others in Jersey who offered to marry her if it meant she could stay. June was also the month in which a woman who was old enough to make her own decisions was returned to her parents because they disagreed with her choice of lover.

Several famous people died in Jersey in June, including a Jerseyman who worked out how to make bread from air, holiday camp pioneer Billy Butlin, and Jesse Boot, heir of the Boots the chemist empire. Although Jesse Boot had family roots in Jersey, Butlin had sought refuge in the island from the British government’s high tax rates. Another man who found refuge in Jersey was General de Gaulle – briefly – when he stopped at the airport for lunch when fleeing France in advance of the German invasion.

Jersey also had many reasons to celebrate during June in years gone by. It received no less than three royal visits and produced a £100 note to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s jubilee. It was a month of firsts, too, with Corbiere Lighthouse being lit for the first time, the Odeon cinema’s art deco building hosting its first film screening, and the Jersey Evening Post publishing its very first edition.

Britain demilitarised Jersey and the other Channel Islands, in advance of the Germans’ arrival, but didn’t inform Germany itself, resulting in a Luftwaffe bombing raid on St Helier that cost several local lives.