25th June 1969
Mother is banished from Jersey for being unmarried
Despite a petition from 1700 locals, and a vibrant “save Maria” campaign run by her employer, Phyllis Rawlinson, the States of Jersey banished Portuguese Maria Batista from the island on 26 June 1969. Why? Because she was the unmarried mother of John, a child born on the island six weeks prematurely.
The 21-year-old, who worked in a knitwear factory, had received more than 30 offers of marriage from men in Jersey who wanted to save her from deportation.
Jersey’s morality code
The Daily Mirror explained that she was “being expelled for breaking the island’s morality code for foreign workers”. She was given until 1 July to find herself somewhere to live, and the Portuguese embassy in London had asked the Home Office to help. Batista said that she could not return to the small village where she had lived in Madeira as she would be treated as an outcast for being an unmarried mother.
Her story was widely reported not only in Jersey but throughout Britain, when it was picked up by the national newspapers. Four days later, the Newcastle Journal reported that a widower in Sunderland, whose wife had died four months earlier, had said he’d be happy to give her a home so she could look after him and his daughter, Pauline.
After considering her case, the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, eventually announced that should Batista come to Britain she would be made welcome.
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Other events that occured in June
Corbière Lighthouse is used for the first time
- When the lighthouse at La Corbiere was first used, on 3 June 1874, it had to be lit by hand. It is now solar powered.
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A priest is accused of infanticide
- Richard Averty was a loyal Catholic priest with a terrible secret: he also had a child, which he killed to keep his secret safe.
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Victoria College’s first headmaster is born
- William George Henderson was the first headmaster of Victoria College, having been ordained a priest in 1859.
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The Royal Militia leaves Fort Regent
- The Royal Militia was forced to leave its home at Fort Regent in advance of the arrival of German troops during the Second World War.
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